eternal Zero

I hover around 150 APM on average. As high as almost 200 on heroes like Madman. That's when I'm being competitive. I seem to be 120 almost every time when I'm not trying.

It matters up to a point. If you have under a certain APM then you're in trouble. Otherwise no big deal.

This should never happen. Ever. Also whoever mentioned using Silencer's DOT: Don't use it. If they ported it over correctly then any usage of a skill OR item will dispel it. This includes eating a tree. It's a noob killing spell like Lego's DOT. One thing to note about Rampage. He is currently a gimped version of SB. His charge is easily nullified by Shroud or an invis hero. Usually SB keeps focus on the hero and will still hit even before the debuff is placed onto the target. In this game if you invis before he gets within 2500 he will break his charge. This doesn't save you from a surprise charge but if your team sees him charge off or you suspect a surprise charge you can easily break it. I personally do not abide by ragequiting ever. There is no excuse for that bullshit. If someone is ruining your game for owning your team then so be it. Move on. But to screw over the rest of your team is unacceptable to me. Also I just want to echo this: It's true. The main reason I'm "good" or arguably "pro" at this game is because of how much information I know about it. Micro and APM aside you can't expect to do well at this game without doing your homework. Last edit for a while I promise: OMG BANNING DRAFT!! It's not quite -cm but it's pretty damn close!

He has no escapes so constant ganking isn't a problem. This is why he isn't overly used in pro DotA. But yes, he is a monster if you let him be one.

Even then with your vastly reduced movespeed any player that knows Defiler's range well enough to sidestep your nukes as well as harass you will win solo mid making you ineffective. Also I think you guys could easily be a mid-range competitive clan if you guys took your best players. Only issue would be that at worst most of you don't have more than two heroes who I feel you play at your best. If you guys got scouted out at all for your usual strategy and your main power heroes would get banned pretty quick. There was a clan I used to scrim against a lot that would heavily rely on one player getting Pestilence and turning the game onto its head cause he was so good at it. This btw is the same guy that I know can win a solo Behemoth against me when crow bottles wars were in full swing which is hard for me to admit, haha. If we banned that hero they were actually a team we won a majority of the time.

First and foremost Scout is still a shit hero. Any "rework" is a waste of time. Secondly I'll give you Magebane though he was just fine in the beginning of HoN beta when he had +5 base strength instead of his current changes. He was a monster then, too. You also misunderstand. I didn't say don't do it because it's been done. I was talking about "Select skill get permanent +15 Strength." That's the ultimate for Centaur and it's +agility for Drow Ranger. Also there is a hero that gets a spell that does -Str as well as damage in an area of effect as well as gives the +Str to the hero itself. That's on Undying.

+ Strength or + Agility are already built into skills into two DotA heroes and they're ultimate level abilities. I realize you feel like changing the game to suit this hero but having the damage and activation of heavyweight from enrage is well worth it on a Behemoth. Pro Earthshaker players actually get all four skills eventually. Honestly it's not because I want this game to be DotA forever but I honestly think that most of your ideas have been done before in other heroes and that HoN is just so limited that you don't realize it. Even the new HoN heroes have all been done before in some form or fashion but they are just slightly altered due to a new gaming engine. It's hard to make change because of the vast amount of things done in this game before. I think that before you hope to make a lasting change on a hero you best focus your attention into creating a new item. Lots of skills and different effects have yet to be placed into items and this is where most people will contribute if at all. Just take a look at the latest updates. Suggestions about changes and the like have been made for years and years with DotA and since the beginning of HoN beta but what are the very few that even made it into the testing stage? Items. Nome's Wisdom (he's a cool guy, btw) and the new Harkon's blade. Not any hero changes. Oh that isn't fair. Maliken is actually a fan's idea of a hero that S2 took and didn't use the original hero concept. Still stands that his main two draws: the sword blink and ult transformation are slight tweaks to old DotA skills.

You guys are focusing way too much on optimal fissure use. A good behemoth player could potentially solo mid with just the gold he could get from farm/harassing with fissure. He can win against a double lane by himself provided he has enough mana. Two creep kills + nuke/stun + positioning on enemy lane is really really easy to do with each fissure and this adds up quick. Those are just with straight line fissures and timing them well. He's fine as is. Also one dimensionality? You speak as if every hero should be able to do anything. Most heroes suffer from crappy 4th skills, so what? Get stats. You're arguing about 4th skill syndrome on two of the strongest heroes in the metagame. Or would you rather have a case of too many good skills on a hero like Nymphora where you want all four maxed ASAP and early decision of points is critical? Though most competitive users go stun/mana and ignore pod until later. You can't have the best of both worlds. Don't change the game to make up for shortcomings in your decision making I say.

PSR is being rescaled, not reset. Stats are being reset. While I always welcome the stats reset I'd actually want my PSR reset rather than just scaled differently. And btw guys, Spiritbreaker is Str and Silencer is Int. Most of you guys will enjoy Rhino cause he'll be a pubstar hero as well as a substandard strength carry. Silencer is a hard to play Int carry that I will definitely be playing a lot. Especially if they tried to fix his balance issues by giving him a buff or two.

First of all, you're pretty spot on for the strength carries. As you have noticed War Beast is significantly overshadowed by the other two as all strength carries absolutely NEED magic immunity AND a means of closing the distance. Pestilence does this best as his he gets the closing distance part for free for the longest duration and a good player can work w/o the magic immunity up to a point. Predator gets the magic immunity for free as well as a great lifesteal mechanism and his leap is almost as good as max movespeed. He is actually a hero I'd consider getting Nullfire on even though it helps him in no way in terms of stats just because it keeps them right next to you for longer. (I still wouldn't.) War Beast just doesn't stack up. Max movespeed doesn't last nearly long enough. Even his jungling ability is near useless against a good team because they can stop you cold which negates the only thing that keeps him relevant: faster farm and levels. As for Hellbringer: First and foremost if your APM isn't huge, get it there. Be comfortable staying in constant motion, harassing from full range, and nailing every creep. Your lane presence should be huge because even if you're getting harassed back you have an amazing method of healing. Learn all the heroes and their relative HP at levels 1 3 and 5. Know when your Death's Boil will kill them even when considering the healing of a eaten tree. Learn to micro your ult to at least land the initial fire breath while your Hellbringer lays on the healing/magic armor degen before it hits then casts Death Boil if possible if not just starts to attack then slow. You are not full support so don't play as such. You are as strong as a semi carry so keep your presence in the game as such. They should fear you and when your ult is up (and even when it isn't) you should be guaranteeing at least one and up to two enemy deaths by yourself each time fight. Welcome to the wonders of good support playing. You should never feel useless and do recall that this feeling of power is with absolutely no farm outside of your boot selection and wards. Magebanes get Brutalizer when they're pubstomping. In an actual game it's a waste of time and gives zero stats or regen which are of utmost importance to an agility carry. This is even more important for him because if he doesn't have mana to blink he is going to die. Also the only time Pred is a better decision is when Pest is banned. There are ways around magic immunity when he doesn't have max movespeed and once it's passed you better hope your team turned the tide for you. It's not "in your face" enough for the role he should be playing. While the stats are better as well as the slow is useful. The agility gives good damage and armor while the intelligence gives you the bare minimum mana to get more blinks but ultimately doesn't last. If your damage + 2 blinks isn't enough to kill someone then you're in trouble. Also the orb is wasted entirely. You're better off going for Runed Axe. Once you finish it the regen you have from Sustainer will keep you blinking around like a chicken with its head cut off and by the time you finish it you will have enough stat gain to easily clear waves with no problem. Then you go for the gold and get your Wingbow for huge stats/evade/damage and then Heart to finish things off nicely. Or if you're going for the old DotA pro build before Magina went into misuse it was Vanguard, Hood, Heart as you were the super tank to eliminate the enemy casters. This has been another super lengthy post by Zero. This is how much I have been playing and studying this game. This is why I think I am a good player as well as a good ingame team leader. I daresay I could have had a higher GPA if not for this game.

Tensei, I'll pay extra attention next time we're able to play. As for War Beast I like him too but he's so easy to shut down by a properly composed team that he just isn't worth it. Especially with more heroes ignoring magic immunity like Panda he's way too easy to counter. He is one of my favorite heroes but he's just not all that great. He has his place on a pushing team but these generally don't cut it. Edit: The two who asked me for invites they have been sent. Enjoy.

I'm only responding to those who are asking me for critique and for ways to improve. I know this does not apply to everyone.

Then my suggestion is stop playing to ensure a win and instead focus on making yourself a better player because I honestly think the other way is a waste of time. I mean think of the last time I picked Madman on purpose in an inhouse with you guys. I just random because even though I may get a crap hero I can work on last hitting, learning new tricks with each hero, and learning how to fight and maintain a losing lane. Yeah I totally get the whole "load up on carries" mentality but that's not going to benefit anyone in the long run.

PM me your emails if you need a key. I'll oblige you.

Across all of my alts I'm sure to have some lying around.

Also another thing I meant to mention was that Zircon specifically asked about this. He wanted to be more competitive and feel like he was a force instead of feeling like a "farmed" carry who can't do enough to win a game. You don't get to this level if your team is consistently filled with carries so that it doesn't matter how you do in lane because just someone on your team is bound to buy you enough time to be useful. While most of them won't want to play against me the only one that absolutely cannot is vel0city (or his main account, jsat) because he is quite literally three feet away from me in the same room. Otherwise I'm perfectly fine with it. Also with Arachna it doesn't matter if you don't want to do too well but you have to get at least one level of carapace when anyone on the opposing team has any kind of debuff. (Especially Hellbringer who has 3)

Whoever played Arachna last night at mid let's me think that keeping Arachna is fine. At this point you guys don't abuse her carapace so in that sense she is a perfectly acceptable hero. Tempest I can agree with soft bannning. Jera not so much. He's annoying but he isn't gamebreaking to someone like me. I still say we should start limiting the amount of carries a team is allowed to pick. At this level a lot of you think you can carry and play well because nobody will challenge you early game when it matters. You're not getting any better for it. This applies a lot to guys like Relyance with Torturer, Zircon with Soulstealer, Bardic with Wildsoul, etc. Nobody forces you out of lane or causes you to buy anything that isn't in your main build because you just need the HP or armor to survive. I'm not saying you guys aren't improving with these heroes but you should not be getting the success that you are when you mass these carries onto a team because the amount of coordination necessary for ending a game before the 30 minute mark (without concede) is beyond the scope of this group.

If I had swapped and had Madman that game it would have been my win no questions asked.

Hellbringer is a power solo hero. His role is also largely fluid as he can be the semi carry or the support or the ganker. Never underestimate him.

Bold = Move up two tiers. Underline = Move down a tier. Bolt + Underline = Move up three tiers Red = Drop two tiers. Best lineup we've ever had looked like this: Long lane: Demented Shaman + Carry (Either Arachna or Pest). This is a dominant lane. Short lane: Glacius + Caster Nuker (We've had Pyro, Thunderbringer, or Pharoah fill this role) Mid: Power carry. With Glacius it could be Thunderbringer or Soulstealer. We never lost a game with this lineup. There's also the Hellbourne only team of: Thunderbringer/Arachna Slither War Beast Tempest Demented Shaman that can kill Kongor before first creep wave and then have a level 5 Zeus in mid to rape face.

Then next time we all play together treat me like anyone else in the clan. I will play support and I will lane with you when you are playing the carry. I won't go all out I'll just sit and observe. I watch all of your lanes when you're on my team to a certain extent but I never get the finite details from the minimap and quick glances while I'm soloing. Or you know, play me 1v1 and we'll see where your game falters.

Sides are unbalanced. Even back in DotA when pros used to only play normal mode and not -cm Sentinel won roughly 80% of the time just because they had heroes like Chen where the Scourge had nothing of the sort. Same deal in HoN. Not a direct implementation yet. We've been doing it in the lobby since the beginning of the HoN beta though so everyone who plays competitively knows how to do it properly.

Start focusing on a specific character set to play. Stop randoming and taking chances. Play as many AP games as possible so you keep getting your heroes. Learn their nuances inside and out. Once you think you've done this move onto the next set. Now you know how to play those heroes as well as how to fight them. This is what I did and I can guarantee it works. And yes you should even include heroes like Scout and Blacksmith who are generally terrible burdens but can be good on occasion so you can learn how to deal with them. Also heroes like Ophelia or Hellbringer to fully appreciate each skill as well as what someone else playing them is going through physically and mentally. Microing a bunch of units (usually) reduces reaction time among every unit and if you can force certain situations they will abandon their micro entirely and just try to run away and save their hero. It's things like that you want to learn. Also, like Dhsu said, study study study. I've spent so much time reading strategy and watching pro replays of this game. By this game I mean DotA and I think it'd be worth your time if you honestly want to improve to start watching pro DotA. There's definitely a lot to do and you can't do it all at once. Pick a single area then go from there. Also whenever possible read the strategies and guides based on their DotA counterparts. These are usually better because honestly most of the HoN community just doesn't understand the metagame thinking and does extremely stupid shit. Even though differences are clear between the games the DotA metagame is far superior in strategy. Also if what Battousai mentioned is what you guys agree on then we might as well start playing -cm mode which is where each team gets 2 or 3 bans in a 1-1-1-1-1-etc fashion and then the team that banned first picks first in the alternate pick progression of 1-2-2-2-2-1. This is fine I guess but honestly you guys aren't good enough to warrant the full on -cm mode. I do agree with soft banning the tryhard heroes as well as heroes like Dark Lady, Magebane, and Sand Wraith because they're not hard to play in a setting where people won't dominate your face for doing nothing in lane and you don't get better playing like this. You get lazy and incompetent by thinking you can be useless in the early game to make up for it in late game and that's just bad play. Yes I realize I'm saying play a game full of the lower A and B list heroes but that's the point. In order to make up for your hero's deficiencies you either have to improve your own play or play as a team. Either way you're improving. Back when I was still learning DotA my group would ban heroes all the time for being too easy. Razor, Nerubian Assassin, Gondar, Enigma, etc just because they had one aspect that made them too good whether it be a spell or easy farming or huge burst damage out o invis.

Also that 2k item isn't too useful in most other cases. The only way I see a competitive team getting that item is saying "let's not buy wards for ten minutes to let our support afford this and hope we don't lose in the meantime". Clever solution that has been around for a while but isn't well known because it's so inefficient. Axe/Lego has always been a mixed bag for me. His main contribution to a competitive team is to completely overwhelm an enemy lane. NOT to jungle. His main use came with a Warlock combo lane on your short lane where you would stand in between the two enemy towers and intercept creep waves. Warlock has a healing spell (the original and better version of Voodoo's mojo) and Axe would start with double stouts. You would kill every creep wave quickly and allow your creeps to own their primary tower. This usually worked because you put a weaker late game hero + babysitter in your long lane and so they wouldn't be able to do a thing. He has no such support here and many people play him wrong. You say his ulti KSes which it could but it ensures enemy carries don't get away with with almost nothing. He's definitely a force to be reckoned with and I feel he belongs in your A tier as a hero but in terms of actual team composition he belongs in your B due to the changes made to Warlock and the general "4th skill" feel to Voodoo's mojo early in the game. That is to say, you shouldn't get it until it's the last available skill so that combination will do you little good come midgame if you don't have both cursed ground and stunning casks maxed out by then. Also Pred isn't a tryhard hero. He's only seen as truly useful on a team if the opponents have mostly high HP str heroes who act as HP batteries or a lot of magic immunity as his lifesteal will go through it. He is my carry counter to Jeraziah.

From my point of view, I hate kids who tend to be tryhards all the time. Sure win if you want but don't be stupid about picking your heroes. That doesn't prove you're good enough to be in the same competitive ring as me. It proves that the hero can make up for your flaws. Beat my substandard hero with one of your own. This comes up all the time especially in inhouses were the lower ranked players want to show their stuff so they pick the winning lineup where the vets on both teams just pick to have fun. If you happen to enjoy the power heroes then fine do whatever. I'd honestly rather be more laid back in games so people rage less and so I don't get back into my competitive swing because it ate away at my life. I played so much and raged at so many people for not doing things right. You know it's a bad sign when you think that a team of five of me could have won the game instead of your current clanmates.