Heroes of Newerth

To be able to do almost anything in Heroes of Newerth, first thing you need to learn is how to stay alive. There are quite a few skills you need to learn to be able to stay alive, but the most important one is Map Awareness, after that is juking and other techniques which will be covered in this section of the guide.

Map Awareness

You see what I did there?

The art of map awareness will be one that will make or break a game. Learning it is necessary, and will take you far. If you master the map, you master half of the game. The other half is the micro which comes with experience. Read the guide and go well on your way to becoming a God of Newerth!


The basics of any game are what make a gamer exceed past the state of a novice, and the need to understand these basic skills is paramount. The point of map awareness is to always know the location of your partners while also having an eye on the opponent. This awareness allows you to avoid ganks and prevent deaths for you and your teammates. It goes even further than that, to the point where you have the ability to see how pushed or pulled the creeps have gotten in the lanes. All of these things together make winning the game a lot easier. The ability to know where the enemy is and how many of them are in the area allow for an easy gank or a team wide backup. The gank will give major gold and experience, while the turn-back saves a lot of lives. Either of these choices may be a game turner, and that's where map awareness becomes key.

Warding

They are like security cameras

The more map you see, the more chance you will have of getting away or of killing the enemy, and wards are the main tool to use for this. The support player normally goes for the wards and puts them in strategic areas. How to use these wards to their maximum potential will be covered in the Warding section of this guide. The overall philosophy of more vision, more power is what makes map awareness so important. If you do it right, your chances of winning go up by tons. Just keep an eye on your mini-map and make sure to keep using wards because they are useful all the way to the end of the game. Especially in areas like the rune spots, near Kongor, and jungle entrances are a must.

Which Lane to Pick?

Heroes of Newerth Tourism Inc.! We help you find the right lane.

In the beginning, you'll be given a lane depending on the heroes your team has picked and you'll most likely start off with a partner on side lanes or alone in the middle. However, in all situations your objective is to fight the creeps, maybe push a tower, or roam to the other lanes to gank when asked. The main reason to try to lane as much as possible is to gain experience and gold. With the objective in mind, use your intelligence to fight in lanes. If your combo is not effective against your opponents, then switch or team gank. In any game that involves strategy, you must use all of the brainpower you can muster. The side laning is difficult but as long as you think things out, staying alive shouldn't be too difficult.

However, you must still lane later in the game. The tips for early game and late game laning vary slightly. Map awareness remains the key to laning solo later in the game; you have to know if teammates are close enough for backup and where the enemy is. If you see the enemy hoarding around another spot then you're safe, but make sure to count them. If all of them are missing, farm only around an allied tower or where you have the rest of the team close at hand. The farther away from your tower you go, the better the chance they have of stunning and killing you. If your lane pushes too hard and you're alone, call in a teammate or go to the jungle while the lane pushes back. It may all sound complicated, but it is a matter of easing into a pattern.

Putting Down Signals (Pinging)

Incoming threat 6 o'clock!

A basic and necessary skill is to Alt + left click on any spot on your mini-map and you will see and hear a little signal pop up on the there. Everyone in the team will see it and know it's a spot of importance. It is a quick and effective way to prevent or initiate a gank, as well as to push a lane.

Juking

Run around like you're bat-fuck insane. People will leave you alone.

The art of juking is one we all learn over time because of experience in maps and heroes. The art of juking is, in other words, making an unexpected turn or move that causes your enemy to lose track of you. Line of Sight is the basic factor in it and must be paid close attention to and your goal is to stay out of your enemy’s line of sight. It gives you time to find a way out or just teleport back to base. Rather than just running around like a chicken with its head cut off, try to think of places to hide. Most new players make the mistake of doing the former of the two choices.


The juke will allow you to build enough mana for a stealth, stun (very effective to run away), or to activate boots to book it. Just executing a single juke won't put you in the clear; you need to play around the map a bit so the opponent completely loses you. Try to first juke him and then continue going around places he wouldn't expect you to run. Go around to his jungle or cut back to where you just ran from. The possibilities are all dependent of the player's imagination.


Hopefully you'll get away from the opponent then, but if you don't, there are a few more ways of getting away which are all about getting out of his line of sight. If he can't constantly see you, then he can't stun or hit you. Try running around an area for a few rounds then pull back right through him. He'll follow you around for a bit then, before he can figure out that he should double back you'll be out of there. However, if all else fails, use the most efficient method ever invented. The one and only Homecoming Stone, something that will save your life so many times you won't believe.

Escaping Mechanisms

Try to catch me naah you can't.

Lastly, you have the normal abilities to run away. Heroes such as Nighthound are the kings of escaping. Nighthound itself has a constant stealth as its ultimate ability. That is a skill that will be the constant bane of the enemy. You can pop away and come back for a kill any time. Others like Andromeda or Pestilence can just stun and run. You turn around for a second for the stun, then use boots or just run and use juking. They will quit on you most of the time but it's best to be safe.


Apart from the abilities, you also have the multiple items that make staying alive easier. Items such as Assassin's Shroud (ineffective with Pestilence), Homecoming Stone and boots are the godsends of escapees. The Assassin's Shroud allows you to go invisible for a certain amount of time and run like all hell is loose behind you. The boots allow you to go at superhuman speed in the opposite direction of your hunter, and the Homecoming Stone is the king of all escape weapons. Use the stone to pop back to a tower or base and heal up for another day if you notice that the opponents are too formidable or outnumber you. Portal Key is also one of the best escape mechanisms, but it can also be used to save a whole team if a hero carrying it has a stun. A good Magmus or Witch Slayer will be able to stun three or more enemies to allow his ally to escape, and can often use his Portal Key to save himself just after the stun.

The Rest...

You have to feel your enemy

Staying alive is very dependent on the concepts mentioned above but also most dependent on preventing it in the first place. All you have to do is be aware of the map. The heroes can never have a chance at taking you down if you make sure to move back as soon as they come too close to gank. Another concept is "tower hugging." If you see that a strong contingent of heroes and creeps are advancing on a tower, instead of meeting them out there where they can stun and destroy you, you stay back and stay in tower range to stay alive and be able to slow the opponent. It saves you from giving a free kill, while allowing reinforcements to arrive. Also, heroes with blink abilities should always blink out of the fights rather than in.