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Heroes of Newerth

The Heroes of Newerth Beginner's Guide

Micromanagement
Micromanagement is basically how you control your unit(s), attacking, moving, guard, spell usage, etc, so you can use them to their full potential. We will be covering some basic point of views in micromanagement, where the advantages lie, the mind games, the outcome and so on.

Last Hitting


Give me your money!

The most basic of all things is last hitting lane creeps. This can be done in various ways, whatever suits you best. If you are a ranged hero you have to be fully aware of its projectile speed. The projectile speed is the amount of time the projectile flies from the hero to the enemy it is attacking. You don't want to be a Valkyrie trying to last hit staying as far away as possible from the creeps, since her attack animation and projectile is slow. One way you could improve last hitting with a hero like this is to move very close to the creep before doing the deciding deny/last hit. The quite opposite is Corrupted Disciple, with him you don't necessarily have to move close to the creep since he has a very fast attack animation and projectile. On the other hand with melee heroes its all about the attack animation (how fast a hero reacts and hits the target after your order an attack) since their projectile speed is instant because they have no range on their attack.

Result of perfect execution: Lots of gold and full experience, and less of both to your opponent lane hero(es).

Harassing


You won't like what I'm going to do with you.

Harassing is most often used during the lane phase. When harassing you attack the enemy hero without necessarily going for a kill. Now you ask, why attack if you're not going to kill? You increasingly drop his health to a certain amount that will obviously make him incredibly vulnerable, which forces him to use consumables and in best cases make him go back to base to regenerate his hit points. But you have to keep in mind when you target the enemy hero (with normal attack), you will aggro nearby enemy creeps which will attack you. So make sure when you harass that you aren't in melee range of the creeps, since you're harass will backfire and you will take same amount of, or more, damage than the hero you were trying to harass. You can also use spells to harass with heroes who have effective early game spell damage, this has the added benefit of not aggroing creeps or towers.

Result of perfect execution: You will have kills and be able to freely last hit creeps in lane.

Multitasking


Its not like I'm playing Starcraft 2, right

There are a ton of different scenarios where you will need to use more than just your hero's skills; it might even be because of one of your own hero's skills. Here are some heroes that require multitasking because of their skills:

Wildsoul: Beardulon
Hellbringer: Malphas
Ophelia's: Converted Creeps
War Beast: Hellhounds

Furthermore there's the Puzzlebox (buyable item) which spawns 2 units that you get to micro with a limited lifetime.

Window Shopping
Use the Courier in base to buy items and bring them to you, while maintaining focus on the lane you are on.


IPB Image
None of us is as smart as all of us.


In most cases CTRL + 1-0 is your best friend ever. This is by far the best way to control multiple units at the same time. First you bind your hero to key 1 (press any number, 1-0 while holding the CTRL key), spawn Puzzlebox mobs, then bind those to key 2. This will make your hero able to do actions meanwhile you send in the mobs to attack and mana drain your opponents. But what to do if you have Ophelia with 2 Minotaurs (for stun) and 1 Skeleton (for Ensnare)? Fear not! The TAB key is your 2nd best friend ever, for microing groups. Lets say you have the above selected and want to own a hero, you first select them all to attack the hero you want to kill, then with first selected skeleton you Ensare, press tab (to move to the next unit) and Q (to stun with first Minotaur), then TAB + Q for a stun with the second Minotaur. It may sound complicated now, but it is easy when you get used to it after little practice.

Binding a Courier
The Courier is automatically bind to `, so it is very easy to access him all the time. Some players, still like to bind the Courier to key 4-9 since you should never have more than 3 different groups of units.



Mind Games


I think he thinks that I think...

When you have reached a certain level of skill, you will start to read your opponents micro-moves ahead of time. Mind games will occur when you:
  • want to dodge a spell
  • want to avoid certain death
  • lure the opponent into a trap
  • make a crazy move that ends up in your favor.
Be aware that the opponent will act upon how you play, if you play very passive (no harassing) your opponent will most likely harass you quite a bit, and when low on health you want to avoid harassing yet maintaining last hits.

The following video shows where FreshFriFly (Corrupted Disciple) lanes against the feared AngryTestie (Soulstealer). FreshFriFly has picked up a double damage rune, and AngryTestie knows it. Yet FreshFriFly is not harassing him at all and only going for last hits, which makes him think he can try and last hit anything he wants without taking damage. So to do actions like this you must have great patience, and wait for the right moment to strike.


Commonly used items for mind gaming:
Storm Spirit
Tablet of Command
Portal Key
Void Talisman
Geometers Bane

Result of perfect execution: You evolve greatly as a player, and will have huge advantages in lots of scenarios.

If you still think your micromanagement isn't good enough after full filling these things, then what to do? Heroes of Newerth is in most cases a 30-50 minute game, where you have to stay concentrated from the beginning to the end. To stay concentrated/focused you must be in good shape (no joke), this is also very common in Poker, because maintaining maximum concentration is of vital importance. Now running a treadmill 24/7 isn't going to magically give you awesome micro, you have to practice a lot and get to know all the heroes/items.

Killing Squishy Heroes in Battle


Like a warm knife through butter.

Squishy heroes are known to have low base/gain strength and low base armor. So, in every team fight, your moves are of vital importance. First thing to do is look at your hero skills, then find a target (opponent hero, sometimes multiple) that would be best suited to focus. There are basic roles, and you have to decide which you want to go for: Disable or nuke.

The known disablers/silencers: Witch slayer, Pollywog Priest, Vindicator, Defiler
The known nukers: Pyromancer, Witch slayer, Wretched hag, Plague rider and Thunderbringer

Now its quite simple, as nukers you try and kill the enemies' most important hero. As a Disabler you want to ruin the opponent’s synergy, silence/disable their area of effect heroes, and/or stun/disable their carry hero.


Baiting


Hey! Hey you! I'm here! Come and get me!

Baiting can be done by any hero at any given situation but is especially good when heroes have the use of a portal key, so they can get in and out very quickly or bait. Baiting can be done by almost every hero, but in most cases its best that it’s a hero who won’t die instantly.

Examples: Accursed, Magmus, Blacksmith, Predator.

Basically baiting should be done with any hero with good surviving skills. If the baiting goes well follow-up-heroes that are most commonly used are:
Magmus/Behemoth/Wretched Hag/Hellbringer/Witch slayer.




Priorities in a Battle


Can't I just run in and do my thing?

Carries

You will always want to pick off the weak enemy heroes first, since they will quickly be outnumbered. You don't go in the front (unless Shrunken Head is active); you stay behind and pick them off while your supports do their job.

Area of Effect (AoE)

Behemoth/Magmus/Tempest

You want to stay out of enemy range, so you jump into the battle catching them off guard.

Healers

Demented shaman, Accursed, Nymphora, Ophelia, Soul Reaper and Voodoo Jester

You always have to be aware of your main carries health. The most important heroes in your lineup is the only thing you should worry about, dying to save the carry is always the best choice.

Buying Through the Game


I need a new set of shoes!

There are 3 important scenarios where it's important you know where the items in the shop are located and knowing their hotkeys is a big advantage.

Beginning

In the very beginning you want to buy your items as fast as possible, since then you can be the first at the rune spawn location, place wards at creep camps to prevent the opponents of Pulling Creeps.

Courier

Buying items on courier is always best done fast, since your not the only 1 in the game. Your mates on the other lanes should always have the chicken accessible as much as they can.


Video explaining how to buy with a Courier while in action.


Buying Before Dying

If for some reason you have a large amount of gold, and suddenly 3 enemy heroes appear and catch you (knowing your going to die without a fight), why not spend your gold to minimize the loss of you dying?

Important Notes

Shop hotkey: B
Pressing Control and clicking on a certain item in the shop that requires a recipe, makes you buy the recipe.
The hotkeys for first item bars are as simple as your keyboard Q, W, E, R, T, Y for first column, and A, S, D, F, G for the second one.