Chi, the Exiled Master, was once a beloved brother to Warchief. Chi's embrace of meditation and non-violence caused him to be cast out from the Red Sand tribe, and in exile his meditative abilities became so advanced he no longer needed to use his body, for his spirit could manipulate the world around him. He was locked in a deep meditative state when Adrenaline and Apex's army massacred the entire Red Sand tribe and possessed Warchief, and it was in the spirit realm -- once scorned by Warchief -- where Chi battled the corruption and kept it from completely claiming his brother.
As Warchief's energy returned to normal, then beyond, Chi realized his brother was preparing himself for something epic: Battle. War.
And his own death, if that's what it took to vanquish the enemy who slaughtered the Red Sand tribe.
Chi expected to be conflicted -- should he abandon his beliefs completely, join the violence and chaos of the human world to save his brother?
But he felt no discord.
He was completely at peace with it.
For now he knew, energy was energy. It could be used to soothe, heal, and create, or to kill and destroy.
If his brother's enemies chose to use their energy to harm others, Chi would simply turn it back on them.
It would be their efforts that brought their demise, not his.
Now, still physically weak and seeking to enlighten others and soothe their rage with meditation, he and his spirit animal Soto join Warchief and the Legion in a last effort to bring peace to Newerth.
Target a location to throw a Spirit Shredder there, dealing 40/60/80/100 Magic Damage to enemies it passes through.
Upon reaching the location, it deals 40 Magic Damage per second in the radius, but drains 15 Mana per second from Chi while this effect is active.
The Shredder does not return to you unless activated again, you die, or you travel 2000 units away from the Shredder.
Activate again to return the Shredder to yourself and end the Magic DoT effect. The Shredder deals the Magic Damage again to anyone who it passes through.
For centuries, the monks of the Sang-La Mountains have formed a physical and spiritual wall between Newerth and the forces of corruption that seep from the bottomless crevices and pits into All Hells. These portals existed long before the Second Corruption, allowing the Hellbourne to probe, infiltrate, and terrorize the landscape as they prepared for the uprising. Because of this, the monks have had ample – more than enough, they would say – time to develop powerful ways to counter and destroy the daemonic invaders.
Osho, also called "The Old Teacher" by his students (along with slightly less-honorific titles behind his back) is the eldest instructor among the Sang-La monks and the most experienced when it comes to battling evil corruption. The Hellbourne and their capacity for chaos have ceased to surprise him, and some days he simply can't even muster the energy to be interested in the daemons he's sending back to All Hells. The only thing that does manage to raise one of his bushy white eyebrows is when a student of The Way does not act like a totally idiotic buffoon in training, tripping over their own clumsy feet and stammering like a newborn chiprel. Only his beloved cat Osho truly understands, for his ability to remain aloof among morons is beyond even Master Osho's.
Master Ka uses his pure spirit and the vast, empty void of his meditation to absorb the corrupted flames of the Hellbourne, cleanse them of impurities and malice, and return them to the source with a righteous intensity that destroys that which seeks to destroy. He is a scorching mirror for the unholy, literally fighting fire with fire to keep the Hellbourne at bay and purge their corruption from Newerth. Most think his companion Huo is simply a pet monkey, but the clever creature wields a powerful void himself and serves as a force multiplier when Master Ka faces an overwhelming level of corruption.
F.L.E.X.[ | ]
The F.L.E.X. soldiers are the most advanced -- and experimental -- weapons developed by the Legion's war machine yet. Created by a top-secret program buried so deeply in the Corps of Engineers that not even Tork knew about it, they are bionic, armored suits powered by artificial intelligence that only utilize the best traits of the heroes upon which they are based and ignore such things as doubt and fear. While each F.L.E.X. soldier has complete agency over how they perform their duties, they are all programmed to follow a specific sequence of orders once the enemy is involved: Find > Lock-on > Engage > eXterminate. It is a lethal form of evolved intelligence that always creates a predictable outcome: when a F.L.E.X. soldier targets an enemy, one of them is going to die.
The F.L.E.X. artificial intelligence is programmed to ignore traits and tendencies that are likely to cause doubt and hesitation in battle, and compassion falls within this category. However, the F.L.E.X. Behemoth AI quickly realized that compassion was one of the Legion hero's strongest attributes and could be amplified to increase its battlefield efficacy. By shifting the Find > Lock-on > Engage > eXterminate directives to focus on the fear of Legion allies rather than the aggression of Hellbourne enemies, F.L.E.X. Behemoth is able to place itself in prime positions for intercepting attacks and obliterating the incoming threat. Countless grateful -- and unscathed -- Legion warriors are grateful for this powerful emotional intelligence.
F.L.E.X. Hammerstorm may not seem that different from the original source material at first glance, for the famed warrior is known for his strength and dedication to the cause, traits executed perfectly by the F.L.E.X. artificial intelligence. But a closer look reveals that F.L.E.X. Hammerstorm has discovered a weapon untapped by the Legion legend: personality. It turns out that while pure brute force is indeed effective, stronger alliances can be formed by being likable, friendly, and humorous, and enemies can be rendered off-balance by unexpected jokes, flirtations, and oversharing. The fact that all of this makes the original Hammerstorm very uncomfortable is proof that it works.
The Cleansing Research Labs inside the Electrician's Laboratory are hidden deep within the sublevels to ensure a properly controlled environment, and to keep his most extreme experiments from prying eyes -- Legion spies as well as curious Hellbourne who, despite dwelling among the damned for millennia, may still find his cutting edge work unsettling. The Electrician developed the Cleansing procedure after discovering the power of corruption was greatly reduced when it had to contend for control of a being, battling against the soul and whatever divine power reinforced it. So he found a way to scrape the soul from a living creature, harvest it, and replace it with an artificial form of corruption that is much more controllable than the hellish, chaotic version. And much more powerful.
Deathbloom is his first success, technically, as she was the first human to survive the procedure and still be able to function despite the artificial corruption trying to burst free from its human vessel. Captured by his Shocktroopers from a lightly-guarded supply caravan, the young patient had tremendous skills in cleaning, food preparation, and little else. The Cleansing enhanced these talents into incredibly effective combat skills, but what the Electrician did not expect was the augmentation of her ingrained desire to help people. Such a flaw should have been scrubbed along with her soul, but apparently it was embraced by every cell of her being, even her DNA. Deathbloom was supposed to be his first Cleansed Warrior, but instead she became a vile traitor, slashing her way out of the sublevels and wreaking havoc throughout Laboratory as she pursued her new mission to do some cleansing of her own -- wiping Newerth clean of Hellbourne.
Painkiller serves joyfully as the head nurse within the Electrician's Cleansing Research Labs, prepping victims -- er, patients -- for their procedures and making sure the brilliant Electrician has everything he needs to conduct his best work. Unruly patients quickly turn docile when she gives them a heavy dose of her sedative cocktail, which overwhelms the pain receptors with so much agony they are unable to move, let alone fight. Even the Shocktroopers standing guard outside the Cleansing labs know to keep silent, lest they disturb the Electrician and earn a dose of Painkiller themselves.
She would be happy to never leave the nightmarish sublevels of Laboratory, but the escape of Deathbloom has caused her beloved Electrician so much angst it's causing his work to suffer, and he's losing more Cleansing patients than he's saving. Well, this just won't do. Painkiller has made it her mission to hunt Deathbloom down and drag her back for another Cleansing, and if that one doesn't take, the last thing that traitor will see is the ultimate painkiller needle slipping into her heart.
Bug Fixes & Optimizations[ | ]
UI[ | ]
MVP Screen no longer becomes stuck if you Mentor someone or go to HoN Live.
HoN Logo in the middle bar is no longer pixelated.
Double clicking someone's name from Friends list or a player name in a chat channel now brings up the Instant Messaging channel with that player.
"Remove All Notifications" will now actually remove all notifications from the notifications list.
Hovering over a hero now displays Hero Mastery Progress & Experience.
Alternate Avatars on the Hero Pick selection screen will now properly display their price if you do not own the avatar.
Role text will no longer go outside of its borders in the Hero Pick detailed window.
General[ | ]
Passive ability cooldown status beside ally hero portraits is now properly updated (i.e. will change to a red colour when on cooldown).
Automated Courier will no longer appear to deliver your items when you are within shopping range of the enemy team's base item shop.
Instead, the items will be delivered to you automatically under these conditions if you use the Automated Courier delivery command.
Abilities boosted by Staff of the Master have a new format: ability name colour is now green, with a * added at the end.
Prevents ability names from being too long & getting cut off.
Chi, the Exiled Master, was once a beloved brother to Warchief. Chi's embrace of meditation and non-violence caused him to be cast out from the Red Sand tribe, and in exile his meditative abilities became so advanced he no longer needed to use his body, for his spirit could manipulate the world around him. He was locked in a deep meditative state when Adrenaline and Apex's army massacred the entire Red Sand tribe and possessed Warchief, and it was in the spirit realm -- once scorned by Warchief -- where Chi battled the corruption and kept it from completely claiming his brother.
Crippling Puncture
A Thousand Cuts
Enlightenment
