Heroes of Newerth

[relyanCe]

Leo plays Maliken

Farms riftshards and Charged Hammer

Much HoN-rage Ensues

Electrician blinks

Grips some dumb solo carry

5v1 push win

Hammerstorm is huge

Runed Axe Elder Parasite

Super Protestant

Harmonious plays

Tensei will not lane with him

I tear up laughing

i am bored at work

so i made these dumb haikus

dont judge me fgts

[Tensei]

Just five minutes in,

Already want to conceed?

Screw that, voted no.

Check your log, noob,

I definitely called miss

Your own fault, dumbass.

Let me get this rune

Oh fuck, Moonqueen was camping,

Stupid OP ult.

All game have you farmed,

made us lose many teamfights.

Why the d/c now?

[zircon]

Oh cool it's alt pick

OK please get good heroes

Keeper chronos fuck

[Arcana]

This game looks cool, but

I might not be that hardcore

You people scare me.

[Dhsu]

Oh cool it's alt pick

OK please get good heroes

Keeper chronos fuck

Ultimate win.

[LuketheXjesse]

Harmonious plays

Tensei will not lane with him

I tear up laughing

From now on we quote this every game Harmonious is online, joins a game, talks, or dies.

[Tensei]

From now on we quote this every game Harmonious is online, joins a game, talks, or dies.

Yes please. I think half the kills for your team were on Harmonious. (the other half on Zealousy )

[Battousai]

Luke picks Pollywog

No courier, and no wards

Won't grip plague rider

Last pick behemoth

Fifty minute portal key

2 and 10. We win

[BardicKnowledge]

I threw an arrow

You ran in and were eaten

Not my fault, loser

Getting beaten down

everyone here is a noob

fuck this R-R-R-RAGEQUIT!

[Dhsu]

Hey that last line is 7 syllables.

[relyanCe]

when fighting madman

make sure you gank him a lot

if not you get raped

I pick odd heroes

Everyone rages at me

Well so much for fun

[LuketheXjesse]

I pick odd heroes

Everyone rages at me

Well so much for fun

Sorry, Ophelia sucks. (but she is hot)

[BardicKnowledge]

Hey that last line is 7 syllables.

Just pronounce the first R's as a one-syllable "errrr" instead.

[Tensei]

Sorry, Ophelia sucks. (but she is hot)

I seriously need to start playing her. I do well with warbeast, Ophelia shouldn't be too much of a problem.

[bladiator]

I have to say, I give voodoo jester a much bigger thumbs up than I have in the past at this point. Played a game where we were beaten pretty decently (we just could never push the towers, and had a rampage and magmus that were a bit below the cautious and skilled level), but still had great luck with the jester. We also had Nymphora throwing down the heals and keeping our team alive in team fights and I would just throw in a cocktail, put in a mojo on nymph or someone else close to the fight, and then drop the ward from behind the trees. Worked really well. I know I'll get owned the next time I play him probably, but he is a lot better than I expected.

[Tensei]

Voodoo Jester is all about the Cursed Ground, man. It's his very best spell (yes, better than the ult and the stun) and one of the best nukes in the game. He's incredibly lackluster if you don't use Cursed Ground.

[bladiator]

Voodoo Jester is all about the Cursed Ground, man. It's his very best spell (yes, better than the ult and the stun) and one of the best nukes in the game. He's incredibly lackluster if you don't use Cursed Ground.

I knew that was the case, but the time he takes to throw down the cursed ground, even if I tried to predict where they were running, I would just miss everyone somehow. And it doesn't help that the range on the spell is so pathetic. You have to be in the thick of battle and throwing it down and I either a) miss them entirely or get the crap beat out of me for getting so close.

[Tensei]

It also combo's with his stun, since they can't move when they're stunned, which makes it easy to throw down.

[zircon]

Yeah, Voodoo Jester's combo is (1) stun, (2) cursed ground while they're stunned, (3) ult. This will kill just about anyone. The main VJ guide on the HoN forums says to max Cocktail and Ground first - don't bother with Mojo until later (10, 12-14) since the power of Cocktail/Ground is superior.

[relyanCe]

one of the best items i like to use with VJ is storm spirit. Cocktail can be hard to place with its slow movement and only 1 second stun time, so i like to start by ss'ing them, cursed ground, THEN cocktail and ult. its a little more complex but the early game power of this combo tends to be gamebreaking.

[LuketheXjesse]

PERSONALLY I like to at least get mojo, then don't level it again until i max out cursed and cocktail. That extra HP helps. :S

EDIT: post # 2000

[Tensei]

Pandamonium

He likes to buy portal key

Match made in heaven

[BardicKnowledge]

Alright guys, some strategy time.

First, don't try to gank lanes with 2 stunners in them with less than 4 people -- it won't work and you'll feed.

Second, Swift + Elec is NOT a good lane combo no matter what anyone tells you. As long as they have one good stunner, they'll just wait for elec to launch, and then immediately break his channeling with stun. That's not even the main reason though -- the main reason they suck is because that combo is the ONLY thing they can do.

Versatility adds a TON to a lane -- keep that in mind. Also, choose pairs of heroes that lane well together. Don't pick 5 heroes who are a "good" lineup just because you have 1 carry, 1 ganker, 2 supports and a tank/semi-carry. Pick combos of heroes that actually work.

[zircon]

Yeah, hero picking is just as much about seeing your specific synergies and the enemy team's strengths/weaknesses as it is about picking S-tier heroes. For example, the other day we (OCR) played against a team of Nymphora, Thunderbringer, Defiler, Pollywog Priest and I think Tempest. We laughed at first - an all-INT team? No tanks, no carries? However, we were quickly put in our places when they coordinated pushes starting at level 6 and ended the game about 20 minutes in, not because they were super-farmed but because their entire team was based around pushing and they dominated us as a result.

I really think hero picking makes or breaks games. Even the best players on a team with no stuns and disables will fail against a competent AOE-based disabling team. That's partially why I get so frustrated sometimes; if you have the wrong heroes, it's like the game is lost before it even starts.

The exception to this would be heroes that generally fit in on almost any team. There aren't many, but I think overall, Demented Shaman, Thunderbringer, Tempest, Jeraziah, Pollywog Priest and Pharaoh are solid regardless of the rest of the lineup.

EDIT: http://honstats.heroku.com/?sort_by=percent_win&sort_dir=DESC

I found this funny. Plague Rider is #1 in terms of overall win % and average kills per game. No surprise there.

[Tensei]

To be honest, last game I don't think we necessarily got outpicked, it's just that Dark Lady got fed early and had a 20 minute Runed Axe. I agree that Nighthound, Zephyr, Soulstealer, Warbeast and Voodoo Jester definitely weren't an ideal hero combination (Both Zephyr and Warbeast were dumb picks imo, not just because of their lack of disables but also because of their dependence on neutralling to achieve their full potential).

Also, Swiftblade/Trician is a good lane even against a double stun, but it requires both players to get their heads out of their asses and stop trying to be the ones to initiate. Swiftblade can bait out a stun and disjoint it if he's fast enough with bladestorm (very viable against Hammerstorm and Valk. Hard, but possible against Andromeda as well), and electrician can react by gripping the hero whose stun is not on CD. It's not an insta-win lane by any means but facing a double stun lane is not an excuse for losing us the damn match.