Version 3.9.0

Design

HoN Codex: The Ascension

Overview

• HoN Codex: The Ascension has been added to Heroes of Newerth. Codex is your ticket to Heroes of Neweth's biggest eSports event of the year! In addition to giving you a chance to earn event-exclusive rewards, Codex unlocks new in-game features such as eSports betting, Avatar trade-ins, Ascension quests, Treasure Loot, and more.
  • Codex will be available until after HoN’s World Finals event.
  • A level 1 and 24 version of the Codex can be purchased for 500 or 2,400 Gold Coins, respectively.
  • Codex is currently not supported on Mac OS.

Leveling Your Codex

• Once you acquire the Codex, you can level up to earn exclusive World Finals rewards using four different methods:

Purchase Points

• Three Codex packages will immediately be available for purchase:
  • 500 Codex Points for 600 Gold Coins
  • 1,100 Codex Points for 1,200 Gold Coins
  • 2,400 Codex Points for 2,400 Gold Coins

Ascension Quests

• • Players will have an opportunity to complete in-game quests for rewards.
  • Quest categories include: Community, Betting, Treasure, Disassemble, and Glimmer.
  • A list of available quests can be found by clicking on the HoN Ascension tab in-game.

Avatar Disassemble

• • Once per week, players will have the opportunity to exchange any unwanted Avatars in-game for Codex Level Points.
  • The number of Points awarded will depend on the Avatar disassembled.

Treasure Chests

• • Treasure Chests are a new loot system developed specifically for The Ascension.
  • Upon opening a Treasure Chest, players will be awarded a random piece of content.
  • Treasure Chests include new Ascension Avatars, Announcers, Icons, and Codex Level Points.

Individual Codex Rewards

• Every 100 Codex Level Points earned results in one Codex level gained. Each level gained brings you closer to a piece of Ascension-exclusive loot; in some instances, several! After level 100 is achieved, rewards will be given out every ten levels.
• Notable rewards: Ascension Icons, Avatars, Wards, Couriers, Treasure chests, and Taunts.
• Players who earn 200 Codex levels will instantly receive a Complete Codex Bundle, which includes every piece of exclusive Ascension content!
  • Note: If content is already owned, players who accomplish this feat will not be rewarded twice.
• Epicenter
  • The Epicenter is a temporary landmark building that will appear in Forests of Caldavar for players who own a Codex. Epicenters will evolve as players continue to level their Codex.

Treasure Chests / Glimmers

• Players who own a Codex will have the opportunity to open chests using Glimmers, an in-game currency designed specifically for The Ascension that randomly drop after each matchmaking game. The content received from chests will be selected at random.
  • A high-level Codex will have a higher Glimmer drop rate.
  • Players do not need to own a Codex for Glimmers to drop.
  • Unused Glimmers will disappear two weeks after the HoN World Finals event.
  • Three tiers of Treasure Chests will be available for purchase at the rate of: 200, 500, and 1,000 Glimmers each.

Betting

• Launching with The Ascension is a new betting system that will allow players to wager Silver Coins on match outcomes, and a variety of different in-game conditions.
  • Players do not have to own a Codex to participate in wagers.

Balance

Hero Rework

 Bramble

• Spore Breath
  • Damage reduced from {100/175/250/325 to 100/160/220/280}.
  • Upon use now applies the effect to every ally that has a Corrosive Pod on them.
  • Allies deal half the damage and apply half the stun.
  • Damage does not stack.
• Rejuvenating Growth (Ensnaring Shrubbery, reworked completely)

  Range: Global

  Mana cost: 50

  Cooldown: 60 seconds

  • After a 3-second channel, creates a growth at the target location.
  • Allied heroes (including Bramble) can right-click the growth to start a channel that will heal {25/40/55/70} Health per second.
  • Only 1 hero can use the growth at a time.
  • Each growth can be used for a total of {20 seconds}. It will change visually as it is being used up.
  • Can have a max of 2 {Growths} up at a time.
  • The growth provides {500 Clearvision}, dies in 2 hits from enemies and gives 50 gold when killed.
• Corrosive Pods (Combat Vigor, reworked completely)

  Range: Global

  Mana cost: 0

  Cooldown: 0.1 seonds

  • Bramble will house 3 pods (charges) on him that he can give out to allies or keep on himself.
  • If the ability is used on an ally, Bramble will give one of his pods to that ally for an unlimited duration.
    • Pods are transferred through a projectile that moves at 600 speed.
  • Pods will automatically attack enemy heroes within 550 range dealing {10/20/30/40} Physical Damage once every 2 seconds.
  • Pods will take kill credit for enemy creeps within 350 range that you didn't last hit. When that happens the pods will individually go on a 45-second eating cooldown (this cooldown is for collecting last hits only, pods will still attack).
  • Bramble gets 50 XP when a creep is eaten (finished off) by a pod on an allied hero.
    • No bonus XP if the pod is on Bramble.
  • If an ally with pods dies, pods will stay on that ally through death.
  • When you target an ally and have 0 pods (charges) left or when you target yourself, you will take back the pod that is the furthest away.
    • Example: You give 1 pod to Accursed who goes top and give 1 to Behemoth who goes to lane with you bottom. You then use the ability on yourself in-lane. The ability will take Accursed's pod and place it on you since Accursed is the furthest away.
    • Example 2: You want to return all the pods to yourself. Just keep using the ability on yourself until you are back at max charges.
  • The ability can be switched into return mode (via right-click on the ability icon or with a keybind) to take pods away from allies instead of giving them out. The effect in this mode is instant.
• Entangling Vine Wall
  • Damage per hit on vines decreased from {20/30/40 to 10/20/30}.
  • Now restrains in addition to slowing.

Heroes

 Aluna

• Power Throw
  • Magic Damage increased from {140/210/280/350 to 160/230/300/370}.
• Deja Vu
  • If the skill’s state expires naturally after the first activation, then the Shadow will now spawn from Aluna and start travelling back to where she first used this skill.

 Chipper

• Rocket Barrage
  • Max charges increased from {1/2/2/3 to 1/2/3/4}.
  • Magic Damage rescaled from {80/115/145/180 to 90/105/120/135}.
  • Mana cost reduced from {45/60/70/85 to 40/50/60/70}.
  • Charge refresh interval decreased from {4 seconds to 3 seconds}.

 Chronos

• Curse of Ages
  • Percentage to proc per charge increased from {6.5/9/11.5/14% to 9/12/15/18%}.
• Chronofield
  • Chronos gains Unitwalking, Maximum Movement Speed and 100% Slow Resistance while inside the Chronofield.

 Drunken Master

• Lunge
  • Movement Speed Slow magnitude changed from {20/30/40/50% to 15/30/45/60%}.
• Drink
  • Max charges increased from {3/5/7/9 to 4/6/8/10}.

 Emerald Warden

• Silencing Shot
  • Flat damage portion of the skill reduced from {25/50/75/100 to 0/25/50/75}.
• Overgrowth
  • Catch radius decreased from {200 to 175}.
  • Can no longer be denied by allies.

 Flux

• Base Armor increased from {2.94 to 4}.
• Strength gain per level increased from {2.7 to 3.0}.

 Forsaken Archer

• Piercing Arrows
  • The image spawned is now invulnerable and unselectable.

 Gemini

• Elemental Force
  • Amount of Strength required per point of Armor Penetration decreased from {22/20/18/16 to 18/16/14/12}.

 Kane

• Face Off
  • Can now activate items that do not interrupt your current orders while "Face Off" is active.

 Keeper of the Forest

• Root
  • Now has a Staff of the Master effect: Spawns 3 Animated Trees on each enemy hero hit.

 Kinesis

• Stasis Smash
  • Target damage reduction reduced from {50% to 40%}
  • Can now manually cancel Stasis Smash on self.

 Kraken

• Release the Kraken
  • Magic Damage per second increased from {40/50/60 to 50/60/70}.
  • Cooldown decreased from {110/100/90 seconds to 100/90/80 seconds}.

 Magebane

• Flash
  • Cooldown increased from {12/10/8/6 seconds to 13/11/9/7 seconds}.

 Martyr

• Retribution
  • Damage increased from {[60/80/100/120 + 0.75/1.5/2.25/3 * Missing_Health%] to [75/100/125/150 + 1/2/3/4 * Missing_Health%]}.
• Maximum Damage increased from {135/230/325/420 to 175/300/425/550}.
  • Slow duration increased from {2.5 seconds to 3 seconds}.

 Midas

• Golden Salvo
  • Mana cost increased from {100/120/140/160 to 115/130/145/160}.
• Lion's Pride
  • Mana cost increased from {100/110/120/130 to 110/120/130/140}.
• Elemental Warp
  • Mana cost increased from {100 to 115}.
  • No longer performs long range teleports if Midas is somehow teleported a long distance on the same frame the skill reaches its cast action time.

 Ophelia

• Nature's Wrath
  • Damage amplification increased from {7/14/21/28% to 15/20/25/30%}.
  • Movement Speed Slow magnitude rescaled from {8/16/24/32% to 15/20/25/30%}.
• Command
  • Bonus Movement Speed on affected creeps increased from {0/10/20/30 to 10/20/30/40}.
• Ophelia's Touch
  • Affected units receive {5/10/15 Health Regeneration} for 10 seconds.

 Parallax

• Fulcrum Shift
  • Magic Damage increased from {8% max mana + 0/60/80/80/100 to 10% max mana + 0/65/85/85/105}.

 Rhapsody

• Protective Melody
  • Mana cost increased from {150/200/250 to 200/250/300}.

 Shadowblade

• Essence Shift
  • Now grants Shadowblade {30/40/50%} of the target's main attribute (up from {20/30/40%}).

 Soul Reaper

• Judgment
  • Damage increased from {70/140/210/280 to 75/150/225/300}.

 Torturer

• Chain Reaction
  • Radius increased from {150/175/200/225 to 225} at all levels.
• Agonizing Bonds
  • Cast Range increased from {650 to 700}.
  • Cooldown decreased from {6 seconds to 5 seconds}.

 Tremble

• Hive Mind
  • Now gets put on a 5-second cooldown if Boris receives damage, deals damage, attacks, is attacked, casts a spell, or dies.

 Wildsoul

• Bear Form
  • Wildsoul and Booboo no longer share damage while Wildsoul is in Bear Form.

 Wretched Hag

• Haunt
  • Initial Magic Damage increased from {50/70/70/100 to 50/75/100/125}.
  • Cooldown reduced from {20/17/14/11 seconds to 16/13/10/7 seconds}.
  • Range increased from {400 to 425/450/475/500}.
• Flash of Darkness
  • Range increased from {775/900/1025/1150 to 1250} at all levels.
  • Cooldown increased from {12/10/8/6 seconds to 16/13/10/7 seconds}.
• Bat Blast
  • Staff of the Master also reduces the cooldown from {120/100/80 seconds to 60 seconds}.

Items

Energizer

• Bonus Movement Speed now tapers from {75 -> 25 (instead of 75 -> 0)}.

Nullfire Blade

• Mana Burn per autoattack increased from {24 to 26}.

Thunderclaw

• Magic Damage from the proc increased from {100 to 120}.

Voltstone

• Cost reduced from {700 gold to 600 gold}.

Savage Mace

• Cooldown for proccing the True Strike effect removed (previously 6.5 seconds).

Spiked Bola

• Disarmed state on enemy units can no longer be dispelled.

Spyglass

• Now passively gives True Strike to the wielder.
• Radius to sight and reveal buildings increased from {900 to 1500}.

General

 Kongor

• Now spawns an effect upon death that displays when Kongor will respawn. Effect is visible through fog to both teams.

Community

Ranked MMR Ladder

• The MMR Ladder leaderboard will end on May 3rd and rewards will be given out by May 6th.
  • The reward will be the Champion of Newerth name color.

HoN Tour Season 4

• The fourth edition of the official competitive circuit for Heroes of Newerth has finished! With the regular season over, look forward to some off-season content before the epic conclusion at HoN Tour Season 4 World Finals. Head over to www.hontour.com for more information.

Last Call for Paragons

• With the HTS4 regular season wrapped up, the Paragon avatars are ready to hit the vaults. Before they go, you'll have one last chance to pick them up and earn all the awesome perks that come with the set.
  • From April 19th to May 3rd the Paragon Avatars will be on sale in-store at a discounted price.
  • All of the Paragon Upgrades will be available for purchase individually and in bundles. Check the bundle section of Merrick's store to find these.
  • The Paragon Chest will be leaving Plinko on May 3rd and the Bronze chest will return in its place.
  • All Paragon Avatars and Upgrades will no longer be on sale past May 3rd so make sure to snag these awesome avatars while you can.

Matchmaking Maps & Modes

• Forests of Caldavar
  • All Pick
  • Single Draft
  • Balanced Random
• Mid Wars
  • Blind Ban
  • All Random
• Rift Wars
  • Shuffle Pick

New Content

HoN Codex: The Ascension

The Ascension has arrived! The benevolent alien entities known as Epicenters have followed Parallax and the Artificers across the galaxies, trying to stop their path of destruction. Newerth is the only planet with soldiers strong enough to offer resistance to the planet-ripping Fulcrums and their insidious dark matter, and the Epicenters have finally caught up to the Artificers. Now that they have, they will augment the warriors of Newerth with the power of light and creation to defeat Parallax and his nefarious kin once and for all.

• New Special Edition Ascension  Parallax Avatar:  Ascension Parallax

While the extraterrestrial force of light and creation carried within the Epicenters is incredibly powerful, the dark matter wielded by Parallax is equally strong and will not be defeated without a fight. Both forces realize Parallax may be the key to saving or destroying Newerth, and the Epicenters will strive to carry him into the light and creation of the Ascension while the Fulcrum is determined to drag him deeper into the darkness of the Artificers. Which force will prevail: good or evil? The choice is yours, warriors of Newerth! If you play Parallax on the Legion side, he will be filled with the light and creative energy of the Ascension; play him on the Hellbourne side, and he will revel in the power of the Artificers and the dark matter they wish to spread across all of existence.

• New Ascension Avatars:
  •  Ascension Armadon
  •  Ascension Magmus
  •  Ascension Parasite
  •  Ascension Pharaoh

• New Ascension Creeps

Even the lane creeps have Ascended! During the Ascension, you can purchase Creep Skins to augment Legion creeps with the benevolent energy of the Epicenters and enhance Hellbourne creeps with the nefarious power of the Artificers!

• Level 1 Ascension Creep Skin
  • Augment your melee creeps with the Level 1 Ascension Creep Skin!
• Level 2 Ascension Creep Skin
  • Augment your melee and ranged creeps with the Level 2 Ascension Creep Skin!
• Level 3 Ascension Creep Skin
  • Augment your melee, ranged and siege creeps with the Level 3 Ascension Creep Skin!

• New Ascension Couriers
  • Drone Courier

  Engage the Ascension Drone courier for autonomous item delivery!

  • Gizmo Courier

  The Ascension Gizmo courier is here to bring light, creation, and your swag!

  • Hyperdrive Courier

  Get your items hyper-fast with the Ascension Hyperdrive courier!

• New Ascension Wards
  • Lookout Ward

  The Ascension Lookout will warn you of any danger!

  • Sentry Ward

  The Ascension Sentry is on high alert for enemies!

• New Ascension Announcer

  Bring your game to new heights with the Ascension announcer!

• New Ascension Taunts
  • Orbital Strike Taunt

  Honor the fallen with the enlightening Ascension orbital strike!

  • Ascension Boogie Taunt

  Celebrate the Ascension (and your combat skills) with these funky goblins!

• New Ascension Account Icons & Chat Symbol
  • Check the details below to see how you can earn or win these exclusive Ascension products!
    • Ascension Chat Symbol: Available at Codex Level 1
    • HoN Tour 2016 Merrick Account Icon: Available at Codex Level 7
    • HoN Tour 2016 Epicenter Account Icon: Randomly drops in the Codex 200-Glimmer Treasure Chest
    • HoN Tour 2016 Doctor Repulsor Account Icon: Randomly drops in the Codex 1000-Glimmer Treasure Chest

Zodiac

• New Zodiac Slither Avatar:  Red Scorpio Slither

If you were deceived by the outwardly calm appearance of Scorpio, fear not -- her new poisonous, blood-red armor ensures all will instantly appreciate the strength and passion of her ambition. Underneath her detached air she is by far the most extreme and intense member of the Zodiac, and even though her focus is to return Newerth to a state of balance, her tendencies to embrace revenge and manipulation might extend the process a bit.

General

• New  Balphagore Avatar:  Seasick Balphagore

There are many terrifying creatures in the Hollow Sea, each with its own myths and legends, and Seasick Balphagore has heard of none of them. As an avid fisherman whose appetite for seafood delights could never be satisfied, he ignored every warning and danger sign during a vicious storm and was pulled into the icy blackness never to return. But even the crushing depths could not contain his hunger, so he regurgitated the foul water and murk holding him down, plodded onto shore with a putrid crew of undead aquatic vertebrates in tow, and went in search of bigger fish to fry.

Bug Fixes & Optimizations

General

Runes

• Sol's Bulwark and Daemonic Breastplate enemy auras will no longer apply to runes.

Heroes

 Amun-Ra

•  Risen Ra will now properly shout "I will burn forever!" when he revives from Pyroclasmic Rebirth.

 Artillery

• Mortar Shot's visuals now accurately match its actual radius.

 Berzerker

• Staff of the Master visuals changed from red to light blue for  Erik the Red to match the color theme of the avatar.

 Bombardier

• Bombardment and Boom Dust now function properly in Blitz Mode and have their correct cooldown values.

 Devourer

• Guttling Hook's trail now displays properly from fog if it enters the enemy team's vision.

 Draconis

• If Draconic Defense or Cataclysm is active and the building/Volcano Draconis is defending is still alive, then Draconis will be properly unstuck from the building/Volcano he was defending.

 Maliken

•  Humility Maliken now has proper textures when the hero is level 4, 5, 6 and 7.

 Prisoner 945

•  Rune Breaker Prisoner now has a proper autoattack impact sound.

 Shellshock

• Now properly excluded from Tournament Rules.
• Rolling Thunder's cast range indicator now displays the radius of the skill.
• Luminous Tether's visual effects adjusted to accurately match its actual area of effect.