Andromeda, is identical to Vengeful spirit in
Defense of the Ancients (Dota), and just as in
Defence of the Ancients, she is a fairly strong support hero, and her high damage long range stun allows her to be one of the best roaming heroes in the game. This guide will teach you exactly how to play her effectively as a support hero, although she can be played a carry she is better suited to the role of support.
Andromeda1. Hero Description
The star-born celestial known as Andromeda is a stranger to Newerth. With no memory of her home or her people, she is driven merely by an innate sense that the Hellbourne are vile and the mortal inhabitants of Newerth innocent. Her powerful dimensional magic allows her to bring destruction to the daemons or strength to her newfound allies.
2. Skills Descriptions
Comet
Description: Andromeda rips a comet from her dimension to hurl at an enemy, damaging and stunning them. Mana Cost 95/110/125/140. Cooldown 10 seconds.
- Level 1: Deals 100 Magic Damage and stuns target for 1.75 seconds.
- Level 2: Deals 175 Magic Damage and stuns target for 1.75 seconds.
- Level 3: Deals 250 Magic Damage and stuns target for 1.75 seconds.
- Level 4: Deals 325 Magic Damage and stuns target for 1.75 seconds.
Usage: This is Andromeda’s primary damage dealing skill, and is one of the most power nukes in the game; combining with the fact that it has a decent stun duration and a very short cooldown it is probably the best early game ganking skill in HoN. Maxing out this skill is a must if you wish to maximize your potential as a supporting ganker.
Aurora
Description: Andromeda shakes the magnetic field of Newerth, causing an Aurora to erupt, damage, and reduce the armor of all enemies in front of her. Mana Cost 40. Cooldown 15 seconds.
- Level 1: Deals 25 damage to targets in a line and applies Aurora for 15 seconds. Aurora Effects: -2 Armor, -5% Base damage.
- Level 2: Deals 50 damage to targets in a line and applies Aurora for 15 seconds. Aurora Effects: -3 Armor, -10% Base damage.
- Level 3: Deals 75 damage to targets in a line and applies Aurora for 15 seconds. Aurora Effects: -4 Armor, -15% Base damage.
- Level 4: Deals 100 damage to targets in a line and applies Aurora for 15 seconds. Aurora Effects: -5 Armor, -20% Base damage.
Usage: This is a mediocre skill which as has a small damage and a few nice debuffs to the enemies in a line. If casted correctly, it can be quite effective late game, although the damage really doesn’t do much, the negative armor and base damage make the skill possibly worth getting depending on the team you are facing. Overall the skill usually is not very useful and stat ups are usually a better option until the very end of the game.
Dimensional Link 
Description: Andromeda's link to her home dimension bestows power to nearby allies, allowing them to do more damage with attacks.
Passive - Level 1: +12% Base damage. 900 self AOE.
- Level 2: +20% Base damage. 900 self AOE.
- Level 3: +28% Base damage. 900 self AOE.
- Level 4: +36% Base damage. 900 self AOE.
Mana cost n/a Cooldown: 1 Seconds
Usage: This can be a very effective skill if you have a strong base damage carry such as Moon Queen or Arachna on your team. Although it improves the damage of Andromeda, it is primarily used to help out teammates because Andromeda should not be building for damage. Because of low damages at the start of games this skill is truly only effective once in the mid to late teen levels, making stat-ups more valuable early on.
Void Rip
Description: Andromeda pauses time and space, instantly switching places with another hero. Mana Cost 100/150/200. Cooldown 45
(10) seconds.
- Level 1: Swaps places with an enemy or ally hero. Max range: 750.
- Level 2: Swaps places with an enemy or ally hero. Max range: 975.
- Level 3: Swaps places with an enemy or ally hero. Max range: 1200
Number in brackets for cooldown represents cooldown with Staff of the MasterUsage: This can have various uses in games. Its most effective use is grabbing an enemy hero which is a major threat to the team, and swapping him into all of your allies. Furthermore it is also a very effective ganking tool as although it doesn’t stun, it does allow your team additional time to attack the enemy if swapped closer to them. Another way it can be used is to escape getting killed by swapping in an ally and swapping yourself out of the fight. Be careful doing this however as it can cause huge team arguments if your ally is not willing.
3. Skill Build and Usage
- Comet
- Stats
- Comet
- Stats
- Comet
- Void Rip
- Comet
- Aurora
- Aurora
- Aurora
- Void Rip
- Dimensional Link
- Aurora
- Dimensional Link
- Dimensional Link
- Dimensional Link
- Void Rip
Maxing out Comet and stat points early on is the most effective way for you to fill your role of a support ganker. Getting the stat ups allows you to have both a larger mana pool for better roaming capabilities, and also improves your relatively low health pool. It is also important to get Aurora before Dimensional Link, since minus armor and minus base damage to you enemies is more important in team fights, than additional damage to you and your allies. Later Dimensional Link is needed to further extend you into the role of support by helping your carry and other heroes gain bonus attack damage.
4. Item build
4.1 To start with
Assuming you are in a side lane
2x Mana Potion
Runes of the Blight
4x Minor Totem
Monkey Courier
This build gives Andromeda both the bonus mana and health required early on to allow her to be aggressive in her lane. Also it gives a lot of mana regeneration, which should tie you over until you use your courier to ship you a bottle.
4.3 Then...
Bottle
Power Supply
Steamboots
Homecoming Stone
Fortified Bracelet
Fortified Bracelet
Getting the Bottle and Power Supply early allow her to maximize her ganking capabilities. If you are able to control the runes effectively you can remain at around the same level as all the other heroes on your team while never really having to stay put in a lane for too long. The Steamboots should be set to strength because at this point mana is no longer the issue but rather survivability is; getting a couple of Bracelets also help with this.
4.4 Mid-late game items
Portal Key
Or
Barrier Idol
Or
Totem of Kuldra
Always...
Ward of Sight
Depending on the situation, Andromeda is able to get a ton of different items to support the team, the ones mentioned above are just a few. The important thing to remember is to look at what team your up against and whom you have on your team; if your team needs disables get the Totem of Kuldra, if your team needs magic reductions because the other team is loaded with nukers then get Barrier Idol, if your team needs you to just go into fights and swap the best hero on the other team, Portal Key would work best. There are a few other items that work well with the team, the important thing to remember is to ask your team what they would prefer to have you get.
5. Hero Specific Strategies and Techniques
5.1 Roaming/Ganking
Andromeda fits a role like few other heroes in the game; she is able to level up solely through the art of roaming around and ganking; granted this takes quite a bit of practice to perfect but if you try it a few games and if the other team has no wards up you can effectively level simply by roaming around starting at level 3 (once you have your bottle) and give lane support to which ever lane needs it.
5.3 Rune Whoring
Without properly learning about rune whoring you will never be able to master Andromeda as a roamer. The key is to move in time frames, get the rune at every 2 minute mark then proceed to gank either mid or the side lane on which you received it. This will take anywhere from 20-40 seconds. Then stay in the lane for a short period of time, until it is 20-25 seconds before the next rune spawn, at which point start to roam towards one of the spots and be ready to quickly move to the other spot if you guess incorrectly. It is also very important to make sure you recognize which heroes on the opposing team are trying to get the runes as well, if there are heroes like this try to challenge them for the same rune as your stun often allows you to win these battles. Do not simply allow yourself to have a 50% chance at each rune otherwise your roaming will fail.
6. Replays and Videos
-- Coming soon --
7. Changelog
11/04/09 First release
03/30/10 Skills description updated
