Heroes
As you enter the hero picking screen, you'll be welcomed with “Choose Wisely”. Heed that. The need to know roles, hero-types, and stats will all come to be a part of the formula. Now that you've chosen and loaded into the game, you will get to see your chosen hero, standing in the fountain, which is called your base. Nearby there is the shop and your team-mates. On the bottom of the screen you will see four skills, your health-bar and mana-bar. On the left you will see your hero's icon, level, stats (damage, attack/move speed, armor, etc) and the class of the hero, while on the right side you can see six slots for your items and the amount of gold you have.
You will control one hero the entire match, so get friendly with them. It will be the main focus in this game - you and your hero. As the match progresses, your hero will be improved through leveling and the item-build you supply him with. Health is displayed with the green bar, as in most games. The concept is basic - you run out of health points, you die! Your health will regenerate over time. Furthermore, mana, like in other games, is the blue bar. The same concept applies to the regeneration of the mana. Such regeneration can also be improved over time through items and levels. Everything comes down to what you need and what stats your hero excels most in.
Hero Classes and Stats Points
Smart, strong, skilled. What are you?
Every hero has three types of stat points which he gains by leveling or by purchasing items during the game. Those attributes are:
Agility,
Intelligence and
Strength. Because of this, there are three distinct classes of heroes in Heroes of Newerth which are called the same way as the attributes. The first thing you need to know is what these stat points give your hero.
Attributes
Agility increases your attack speed and armor. Doesn't sound like much, but the faster you attack the more damage you will deal. Only agility heroes should focus on agility stats points, because strength and intelligence heroes will not have much use of agility.
Intelligence is the attribute which increases your mana pool and mana regeneration. This is the attribute on which usually the Intelligence heroes are focused on, since they want to deal high damage in little time with their spells. Once you run out of mana, the increased regeneration from extra intelligence will help you avoid the situation in which you have no mana, no skills and have resort to pathetic auto-attacking.
Strength gives your hero more health and health regeneration. Getting more strength means you will be able to live longer, which is very important, and stay in the action much longer. Strength is very important for attribute for all heroes, not just Strength ones.
Primary Attributes
Every hero has one "Primary Attribute". The Primary Attribute is determined by the class of the hero, so it's either Strength, Agility or Intelligence. Each point of a hero's primary attribute will increase his damage by 1.
Classes
Agility heroes have superior attack speed above all other heroes and know how to use it. They cause Damage per Second at ridiculous rates and make sure to scare off anyone who tries to take them on in hand to hand combat. They are more buff than most intelligence heroes but don't survive nearly as well as the strength heroes. Speed and damage per second are their main source of power.
Intelligence heroes are the spell-casters and magicians of Newerth. These men and women (or beasts for that matter) rely greatly on their mana to inflict pain on their opponents. They are full of creatures that cause catastrophic damage upon their opponents by using the magic of their land, and have more mana than any other hero class. Their mana is their weapon and it is what their statistics are based around. Many in this class are healers or nukers (high damage dealers through castable spells,) which always come in handy in a fight. With all this raw power at their disposal, their main disadvantages are their low health and overall squishiness.
Strength, the Brawn over Brain any day heroes, are the knuckle-heads of Newerth. They don't stop to think and make sure to wreck everything in their path. The Strength heroes have an abundance of health points and regeneration to keep them alive while they eat the damage thrown at them. They are slower than Agility heroes and have less mana than most Intelligence heroes but hit fairly hard and can take loads of damage. They can't be ignored and aren't scared about being noticed.
Hero Roles
Like in every team game, everyone has a role in the team. What role a specific hero plays is not decided by their class. There are also heroes that can play different roles in different hero line-ups. What roles are there and what heroes fit a specific role will be covered in the
Hero Roles section of this guide
Progressing Through the Game
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
As you play on, you will gain levels, you start at level 1 and max out at level 25. For each level you get, you will have a slight stat increase and you will be able to choose a new skill, improve the current one or further improve your stats. You get experience and gold from killing creeps in the lane or jungle and also for killing enemy heroes. Every hero progresses at their own rate, find the one that suits you best and rock those noobs some call your enemies.
