Maliken is a completely new hero to Heroes of Newerth (HoN), and one of the most fun heroes to play. He is a strength carry who should focus on dealing as much damage as possible.
Maliken1. Skills Description
Sword Throw
Description: Maliken throws his sword, damaging enemies it hits.
Maliken may teleport to his sword while it is in flight.
- Level 1: Deals 80 damage with a range of 700. Applies Maimed to targets.
- Level 2: Deals 140 damage with a range of 700. Applies Maimed to targets.
- Level 3: Deals 200 damage with a range of 700. Applies Maimed to targets.
- Level 4: Deals 260 damage with a range of 700. Applies Maimed to targets.
110 Mana cost
Maimed effects20/30/40/50% Movement speed slow, gradually wears off over 6 seconds.
Usage: This is Maliken's bread and butter attack. It can be used to harass your enemies during the laning phase, to heal yourself, escape from ganks, to gank from range, and initiate team fights. With Sword of the Damned it is one of the most damaging non-ult spells in the game (hitting for 330 damage with both skills maxed). To teleport to the sword, press Q again when the sword is in flight.
Sword of the Damned
Description: Maliken’s legendary weapon, the Sword of the Damned,
is capable of two different attack modes:
Enchanted Flames grants him increased damage at the cost of his own life, while Life Essence grants him very high life steal at the cost of reduced damage.
- Level 1: Enchanted Flames +10 dmg -5 health per hit; Life Essence +10 health -5 dmg per hit
- Level 2: Enchanted Flames +20 dmg -10 health per hit; Life Essence +20 health -10 dmg per hit
- Level 3: Enchanted Flames +30 dmg -15 health per hit; Life Essence +30 health -15 dmg per hit
- Level 4: Enchanted Flames +40 dmg -20 health per hit; Life Essence +40 health -20 dmg per hit
No mana cost
Enchanted Flames boosts Sword Throw damage by 40/50/60/70 damage but hurts self for 5/30/35/40 when used.
Life Essence lowers Sword Throw damage by 40% but will heal self for 10/20/30/40 health per target it hits.
Usage: These skills can be toggled on and off for free using the W (Enchanted Flames) and E (Life Essence) hotkeys. Enchanted Flames will make it a lot easier to deny and last hit creeps while laning, switch to Life Essence when there are no creeps to last hit or deny and autoattack to regain health. Make sure you have Enchanted Flames turned on before you gank, so Sword Throw does extra damage. You can also use Sword Throw with Life Essence on into a group of creeps and a hero or two to heal yourself for a small amount. Note that late game with Enchanted Flames on, you may be taking more damage than the extra damage you are giving because the added damage is reduced by armour.
Hellbourne Zeal
Description: Maliken allows his wounds to fuel his rage, increasing his attack speed based on how much health he is missing.
- Level 1: Attack Speed increased by 0.5 per 1% health missing.
- Level 2: Attack Speed increased by 0.8 per 1% health missing.
- Level 3: Attack Speed increased by 1.2 per 1% health missing.
- Level 4: Attack Speed increased by 1.4 per 1% health missing.
Maximum bonus of +100 attack speed.
Passive
Usage: Early game, this is not a useful ability as you need to have as much HP as you can at all times. As the game progresses however, you can use Enchanted Flames and items such as Insanitarius to control how much health you have and you can stay between 1/4 and 1/2 health to gain a great amount of attack speed.
Posession
Description: Maliken allows himself to become possessed, transforming him into a full daemon temporarily. While in this form, Maliken’s attack becomes ranged and he attacks faster.
- Level 1: Posessed lasts 30 seconds. 100 second cooldown. Applies feared to enemies in 400 radius for 0.75 seconds.
- Level 2: Posessed lasts 30 seconds. 80 second cooldown. Applies feared to enemies in 400 radius for 1.25 seconds.
- Level 3: Posessed lasts 30 seconds. 60 second cooldown. Applies feared to enemies in 400 radius for 2 seconds.
Possession effects+20/40/60 Armor for the first 2 seconds, decreasing to +0 armor over the next 5 seconds.
Attack Type changes to Ranged, with a range of 600.
Attacks splash to nearby units.
50/75/100% Splash in a 75 AOE
35/50/65% Splash in a 200 AOE
20/25/30% Splash in a 350 AOE
Feared+40% Movement Speed
Silenced
Perplexed
Disarmed
Unitwalking
Lose character control, running around in fear
Usage: This ability allows Maliken to become a damage dealing monster for a whole 30 seconds. His attack speed increases, they become ranged, and splash to nearby enemy units. The ability also fears targets rendering them uncontrollable, this disable is not magic so goes through all magic immunity, meaning it can interrupt ultimates like Magmus' Eruption even if they have magic immunity.
2. Skill Build and Usage
- Sword Throw
- Sword Of The Damned
- Sword Throw
- Sword Of The Damned
- Sword Throw
- Posession
- Sword Throw
- Sword Of The Damned
- Sword Of The Damned
- Hellbourne Zeal
- Posession
- Hellbourne Zeal
- Hellbourne Zeal
- Hellbourne Zeal
- Stats
- Posession
This is a typical build if you are laning with another hero. If you are soloing mid or you have a jungler, you can get Possession later (around level 9) as you will be gaining more experience and it is not needed until a bit later. Maxing out Sword Throw early means you deal lots of damage to enemies and makes it easier to gank them or harass them in the lane. Sword of the Damned is important because it deals extra damage and allows you to heal yourself. Hellbourne Zeal is chosen later because your first two skills are more important and it's only mid-late game when you should be fighting with less than max health.
3. Item build
3.1 To start with:
1x Pretender's Crown
2x Rune Of Blight
1x Health Potion
2x Mana Potion
At Outpost
1x Logger's Hatchet
Mana Potions will allow you to use your Sword Throw to harass more, while the Health Potion and Runes of Blight will allow you to be more aggressive when last hitting creeps. Getting a Logger's Hatchet will allow you to last hit a lot more effectively, and you should be getting 2-3 creep kills per wave to help farm for you mid-game items.
3.2 Then..
2x Fortified Bracelet
Marchers
Insanitarius
Enhanced Marchers
Whispering Helm
Insanitarius gives you a huge damage and health boost for a small cost. Turn it on when ganking to help kill. Enhanced Marchers will improve your attack speed which lets your Sword of the Damned hit more often. Lifesteal is good because it helps to counteract the health degeneration of Insanitarius.
3.3 Mid-late game items
Behemoth's Heart
Shrunken Head
Or
Shieldbreaker
Riftshards (upgraded)
Symbol Of Rage
Depending on if you want to take a more initiation/tanking role during lategame, you may want to buy yourself a Behemoth's Heart and maybe a Shrunken Head. Otherwise, Shieldbreaker, Riftshards, and Symbol of Rage are are great items to have to aid your damage.
4. Hero Specific Strategies and Techniques
4.1 Laning
Maliken is strong in dual lanes, but quite weak in solo lanes. Pick a partner that can babysit you and help you farm, as this is your main aim while laning. Obviously you should take any opportunities for a kill as Maliken has good offense with his high range slow and blink, and additional damage skill. Try to get as many last hits as you can to help you on your way to Insanitarius and Enhanced Marchers.
4.2 Ganking
Depending on your laning partner, one of you might want to leave the lane and go gank in other lanes. If for example you are laning against two strong ranged heroes and are struggling to get any last hits, you could leave the lane to gank. However, if you are controlling the lane you should stay to farm as much as you can.
When ganking, you should hide behind the trees and wait for an opportune moment, then throw your sword and blink onto it next to the enemy hero. If there are two or more enemy heroes, you may want to use your ultimate if you have it to immobilize them and let your allies move up and get their skills off. Make sure you turn on Enchanted Flames before using Sword Throw for the extra damage.
4.3 Midgame
During mid-game, you should have Insanitarius and Enhanced Marchers, and you should be initiating team battles and ganking. Use Insanitarius after you've blinked and focus on weaker targets. Use your ultimate to interrupt channelling spells like Succubus' ultimate, Magmus' ultimate, and Pollywog's/Electrician's stun. Continue farming for your lategame items as well.
4.4 Lategame
This is where Maliken's real strength starts to show as a carry. If your team has an initiator such as Pestilence or Legionaire, you should focus on pure damage, with items such as Shieldbreaker, Insanitarius, and Riftshards. Otherwise, items like Behemoth's Heart will allow you to tank semi-effectively. Save your ultimate for a good time and then sword blink to a weak enemy and annihilate him.
4.5 Advanced tactics
Teleporting to your sword will disjoint any projectiles coming your way, for example Hammerstorm's stun or Voodoo Jester's stun. This means that if your sword is in flight and there is a projectile about to hit you, teleport to your sword and you will escape the stun. This can be used to help you escape ganks or just avoid negative spells.
Another advanced skill that relies a lot on reflexes is to use your ultimate to interrupt enemy spells as well as channeling skills. For example, you can interrupt Pyromancer's stun, Nymphora's pod, basically any spell that has a casting time can be interrupted if you are quick enough, and the enemy hero will still pay the mana cost of the spell and it will start the cooldown. Also use it to stop heroes teleporting back to base.
5. Replays and Videos
-REPLAYS COMING SOON-
6. Changelog
10/20/09 First release
10/29/09 Hellbourne Zeal description updated
10/31/09 Updated skills description
