It was after dawn on the 6^th of January when the servers went down. This downtime was marked with a sigh of relief and a sense of riddance. While problematic servers were the norm before, ‘twas the announcement of patch day that calmed the sea restless players. Thus on that day, GarenaHoN saw the transition of version 1.0.17 to 1.0.18.

 

While it was expected to arrive long before the 6^th of January, technical errors and the festive season pushed the patch a number of weeks before it was eventually implemented. Cries and whines of Garena’s beloved community were heard from all corners of the region but as Roman historian Titus Livius once said “better late than never”.

 

Nevertheless it arrived and what an arrival it was.

 

Oddly enough the patch is marked as 1.0.18 when it is essentially 1.0.21 (corresponding to international HoN’s version). Thus the followers of intHoN's scene were lost in confusion to the reasons behind this masking charade. Someone made a blunder here because international replays are unplayable with the current patch version even when the content mirrors the 1.0.21 patch.

 

That aside, it accumulates the total of four patch contents which brings about tons of changes in terms of balance and also the introduction of two new heroes. 

 

Full patch notes could be found here

 

Thus with the number of changes, it is then befitting that the patch is to be given an overview.

 

Content

• New Hero: Moraxus
• New Hero: Myrmidon
• Major Changes: Striders and Ward Purchasing
• Major Changes: Assist Gold and Map Balancing
• Final Words

 

 

First and foremost, the most prominent aspect of 1.0.18 is the appearance of two new beastly heroes; Moraxus and Myrmidon.

 

Let us begin with the former, Moraxus.

 

Leaving a trail of headless and maimed corpses in his wake, the blade-throwing Moraxus is among the most feared of the Hellbourne daemons. Some speculate he was once a Beast, transformed by sheer agony in the pits of hell. Others claim he is an elemental creature of warfare itself. Whatever his origin, Moraxus is an unstoppable, implacable foe.

Skill overview

Quake

Makes the ground quake beneath Moraxus, damaging and stunning nearby enemy units.

 

AOE stun Pestilence style. Or aesthetically, DotA’s Centaur Warchief style. Either way, it is as straightforward as Ryurial’s admin skills.

 

Arcane Shield

Moraxus gains passive bonus armor, and with expert timing, can absorb enemy spell energies.

 

With precision, this skill works exactly like a Nullstone but with bonus armor, movespeed and attack damage. Also when you first level this up, Moraxus will wield a large shield.

 

More Axes

 

Moraxus is armed with more axes, which he may throw at enemies as presents. Axes deal damage and apply a stacking movement slow to the enemy hit.

 

This is the epitome of Moraxus’s abilities and also an extremely annoying spell to deal with. As the description entail, this multi-purpose skill is used to last-hit, harass and facilitates chasing/escaping situations.

 

Matraxe

 

Moraxus creates a defensive axe matrix which feeds off of the energies of nearby enemies. The matrix absorbs incoming damage, and Moraxus may detonate it to deal damage to nearby enemies.

 

Definitely unique and understated. Basically when you put this skill into effect, you get a secondary life bar that grows as time goes on. Damage dealt from this skill relies on the amount of health the second life bar has, so essentially, the longer you stay within enemy radius with this skill on, the more damage you deal at the end.

(Source)

 

This beastly looking hero wields a large axe and shiny armor and as the name implies, the birth of Moraxus is attributed to S2’s view that HoN needs more axes. Crude puns aside, this hero is extremely straightforward.

 

“A little advice to new players, use Moraxus like pestilence.” – [DskB]Dragon

 

“Moraxus is a hero that excels early-mid game, with his axe ability for harass and his stun to set up kills. His role is a tank in the game so best way to go with him is always getting Helm of the Black Legion, Shaman's Headdress and usually Portal Key after.” – [DskB]Capt`Mike

 

The biggest question is where do all his axes come from?

 

 

 

Next, Myrmidon.

 

A denizen of Newerth's uncharted depths, Myrmidon has arisen to check the Hellbourne advance before it reaches his beloved seas. Like the ocean whose form he can take on, Myrmidon is powerful, fickle, and at times even cruel. With his ability to transform into a monster of terrifying strength and power, some question where his loyalties truly lie, but his might is certainly a welcome aid to the Legion in the war against the daemons.

 

Skill overview

Weed Field

Myrmidon calls forth a line of seaweed from the ground in a line in target direction to bind his enemies after a short delay. Bound units are stunned and take magic damage over time

 

A neat skill with a 1 second delay. Easy to target and minimal cast time. Synergizes perfectly with his second skill.

 

Magic Carp

 

Myrmidon sends his fish friend after target enemy unit. The magical carp will follow the target until it hits, dealing magic damage to the target. In addition, if the target is moving at the time of impact, it is stunned.

 

Great disable in a way that it forces the target to either stand still for a split second or be stunned. Also has a pretty far cast range. Great against those who are running away from your fishy mightiness.

 

Wave Form

 

Myrmidon manifests the sea's rage, turning into water and crashing to target location. Enemies he passes through are slowed and have their magic armor reduced.

 

Akin to DotA’s Morphling. Serves well in both initiation and escaping with great debuffs.

 

Forced Evolution

 

Myrmidon transforms himself, exchanging his ranged attack for more durability and power. In his transformed state, Myrmidon attacks at melee range, dealing magic damage to and slowing the target with each hit.

 

You become a bigger fish! Great skill to use after waving into a fray and when you’re under a heavy load of fire. Not to mention the magic damage and slow from your melee attacks could potentially result in tons of damage.

(Source)

 

I’ll say this straight up, I love this hero. Even though at first I thought it was going to be a Morphling port from DotA when the first image of this hero surfaced, still I was utterly thrilled when his arsenal of skills became known. With synergizing skills as well as nifty initiating/escaping mechanisms, Myrmidon excels when he gets some levels and core items. Everything else would be considered a luxury. Not to mention his presence in team fights is huge solely due to his disables. However don’t be quick to assume that he is overpowered because he is extremely squishy. Lousy base armor that is parallel to his weak strength gain, being an intelligence hero and all. Well, you can’t have everything.

 

“Well most players try to make him a carry due to his ultimate which I find is a big mistake since he already has great skills to help out the team and doesn't need much farm.” – [DskB]Capt`Mike

 

It is safe to say then, that Myrmidon takes on the mantle of an aggressive support hero within the ranks of heroes such as Witch Slayer, Pyromancer and Blacksmith.

 

 

 

Major changes

Striders

 

Remembering the days of 1.0.17, one of the most overpowered aspects of the then metagame was the almighty Striders.

 

These nifty and ludicrously cheap boots quickly became a core on every single support hero as well as being notorious in aiding gank heavy heroes such as Pebbles, Behemoth and Magmus wreck more havoc than they have already been doing. It was incredibly overpowered because when you gain all four charges on them, you’re practically moving at more or less 450 movespeed which if, you’re a hero that does not have one of ‘em Striders, you’re dead or at the very least disabled; then dead. Imagine what it was like when a Devourer was running towards you with full Striders in motion. He didn’t even need to hook you to omnomnomnomnomnomYUMMY.

 

S2 then realized the monstrosity that they have created and worked on a solution in an attempt to seek equilibrium. Finally resolving to:-

 

• They now lose charges if you are within 600 units of a visible enemy hero at the same rate they gained them. You begin to gain the charges back as soon as you run away from the enemy. 

(Source)

 

 

In my opinion, this is a great balance because while it did stop this item from being on the same level as Blood Chalice, it is still a great item on every single support hero. It manages to tone down the overwhelming power which lay dominant in its ability to reach an enemy hero before they could react.

 

This change however, is an understated one. The reason towards why I would say it is understated is because you will not realize the change of balance until you are actually trying to chase an enemy hero. It is then you realize that you’re slower than you were last time.

 

“By the time you're 600 range from someone, you don't really need the ms boost that much. In most cases, before the nerf, you'd already take damage before you're in 600 range, so you would have lost the ms by then anyway. I'm not saying it doesn't have an effect. It just doesn't make that much of a difference too often.” - [DskB]Ismification

 

Ward changes

 

 

Affective both Wards of Sight and Revelation, they are now sold individually for 100 gold instead of previously in bundles of 2 for 200 gold.

 

For S2’s explanation please refer to their dev blog here.

 

There was a saying among HoN players that the only form of Map Hack in existence in the game (as opposed to DotA) is through wards and this is true. Given the importance of sight in a team game, wards are known as a public good (or commodity if you are not into economics). It is like bread to the French and rice to the Chinese. In high level games, it is as common as buying Marches. I would even go as far as saying that support heroes would prioritize wards over their own pair of boots solely because the true effect of sight gives the team an eventual upper hand which in contrast to boots, only gives the player who owns them the advantage.

 

However, wards were costly. Sure 200 gold does not sound much, but that is only true when you are not a support player that has little to no farm in the first place. Understanding the cost of buying wards is to understand that a true support player will not take any farm from the team’s designated carry while most likely being placed in the same lane as that said carry. If need be, a supporter will sacrifice his/her own life for that carry’s survival. This will then put them into a position where gold is sacred.

 

Secondly, warding does not reward the person who places it immediately. Factor in the fact that when a player goes to ward, that player loses potential experience and gold because they are not in a lane. This is a large deterrent affecting most pub games because there is no immediate compensation to the warder. Thus resulting in a sense of reluctance to purchase and place wards because it takes precious time and gold. The rewards of warding are only apparent when an incoming gank has been avoided or kills were resulted from the presence of a ward.

 

Consequently the true objective of S2’s plan is to make wards more dynamic and accessible. When wards could be purchased one by one, it then serves as a complimentary item instead of an arduous task to be weighed on the shoulders of poverty stricken support heroes.

 

“I can deward with my first 100 gold. That's huge. I can even do a 3 ward strategy. I can split first two obs with someone. And an extra WoS (Ward of Sight) or WoR (Ward of Revelation) at the start is awesome. A support just has to give up two tangoes to either blind them at the runes, get a pull camp, or have extra vision to help out mid. Starting with 300g is a lot more manageable than starting with 200g.” – [DskB]Ismification

 

 

 

 Bounty changes

 

• Assist Gold Reworked
  • Half of the total bounty awarded for the hero kill is divided evenly amongst all assisters on the kill
  • The player who gets the kill receives the same amount of gold. Overall this is an increase in gold received for assisting on a kill, however you must actively partake in earning the assist (dealing damage, debuffing, etc) rather than just being nearby
  • You still receive gold for simply being in the proximity of an enemy hero kill

(Source)

For S2’s explanation of this change, refer here.

 

It has been publicly known that the direction of S2’s development scheme (found here) is to evolve the game into a fast paced action oriented game. Enforced by the introduction of the gank heavy heroes and balancing objectives, they have taken a further step by tempering with a core mechanic of the game itself.

 

One of their pivotal concerns as highlighted in their design goals was the fact that more gold was being taken out of the game as a result of a death rather than injected in as a result of a kill. As there is a direct correlation between farming versus ganking, the former has always been more prominently favored (we are Asians afterall) because of the potential gold lost, should a battle go bad.

 

Thus the assist gold has been bumped up to suggest that ganking should be considered a lucrative venue for gold.

 

“This is one of my favorite changes in HoN. The game is faster and more ganking style instead of just some boring farming game. Now HoN is not about farming anymore, It's more on killing heroes. Love it!”  – [DskB]Dragon

 

“**** YEAH ASSIST GOLD TY. I mean, the effects are easy to see. Check replays pre and postpatch. The average gpm is so different. It's basically +50% gold from kills as long as somebody assists.” – [DskB]Ismification

 

Forests of Caldavar changes

 

• The bases are now the same size, centered, and all the barracks are equidistant from the main building/fountain.
• The ramps leading into the base are wider and the space outside of the bases are much larger/more open.
• Added some trees above in the Hellbourne side of middle lane (up-left of the middle outermost Hellbourne tower)

(Source)

This issue is by no means a stranger in HoN. Enraged players from pub to competitive levels QQ-ed about a particular side having an advantage over the other. Even the notorious [DRD] KingRaveN once typed in all chat during a competitive match (which was also shoutcasted) against our very own HoN team on the incompetency of S2 with their game.

 

This issue has also been highlighted in S2’s design goals as an issue at hand and this patch will be their first attempt in balancing the map as a whole.

 

“Bigger entrance means less turtle play. All 5 can go inside the base with more distance beside each other which means that it is easier. Also behemoth can't block the entrance anymore with his first skill I think” – [DskB]Dragon

 

“Yeah bigger space, makes it harder for defending teams to rape face with aoe ults hitting 3-5 heroes. Harder to ward inside now though.” – [DskB]Ismification

 

 

 

Final words

 

Firstly, kudos to those of you for making is this far in the article.

 

While the patch has been implemented for some weeks, it is never too late to learn a thing or two given the sudden outburst of content.

 

Nonetheless, as Aristotle; pupil of the Plato and the teacher of Alexander the Great once said:

“Change in all things is sweet.”

 

 

Next up, we will deal with another batch of content that will hit our shores soon enough.