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Heroes of Newerth

The Heroes of Newerth Beginner's Guide

Glossary of Terms
Do you ever find yourself sitting there thinking "Uh... what did that guy just say? Was he insulting my mother?" Well there definitely is quite a bit of terminology to learn for Heroes of Newerth, so here is a list of all HoN Glossary of Terms!

DotA/Hon Chat Shorts


aoe - Area of effect. Used to describe spells which target an area rather then a single unit

AP - All Pick/All Heroes game mode

AR - All Random game mode

b or back - Retreat or run away

BD - Banning Draft game mode

bot - Bottom lane

care - Be careful, this is usually said when heroes are missing from a lane

cd - Cooldown, the time it takes before you may cast the same ability again.

CD - Creep Denies

CK - Creep Kills

crit - Critical attack/strike

dd - Double damage

dmg - Damage

def or fend - Defend

dot - Damage over time

dps - Damage per second

EM - Easy Mode

ff - Forfeit

gg - Good game

hot - Heal over time

hp - Hit points/health

ks - Kill-steal

lvl - Level

mid - Middle lane. The lane every ranged hero wants to solo, and where the most of struggles happen.

miss or mia - Missing in action. Used to tell others that the enemy hero(s) in your lane are missing, so be more careful.

mp - Mana points/pool

pub or pubbie - Public game

rax - Barracks. If yours is destroyed the opposing team's creeps get stronger.

RD - Random Draft game mode

re - Usually used after miss to tell that the enemy hero(s) returned in your lane.

regen - Regeneration

rm or rmk - Remake

SD - Single Draft game mode

ss - same as miss/mia

top - Top lane

ulti - A hero's ultimate spell

xp - Experience


DotA/HoN Related Terms


Ancient stacking
Similar to Neutral stacking, you're stacking the strongest neutrals so that you can kill them at a later date when you're able to. This is almost always done with creeps controlled with whispering helm (helm of the dominater), and utilizes heroes that either stack runed axes or have abilities that let them hit multiple units (Moon Queen's glaives).

Babysitting
Generally in higher levels of play, there will be 1 hero in the lane solely for last hitting and denying while the other is harassing. This allows the person being babysat to farm, and the one babysitting generally doesn't need much gear in the first place to be effective.

Backdooring
Happens when the enemy hero attacks your base tower/buildings without any of his/her creeps around, even if his/her creeps are 1 wave behind from reaching the tower/building.

Bash
To stun a target for a very short time (usually around 1s) and to deal a fixed amount of additional damage, while attacking a unit. Brutalizer gives you this ability: 25% (10% for ranged) chance to Bash for 25 damage and stunning for 1.1 seconds. There are also heroes that have this ability, like Pestilence and Chronos. Also, there is always a delay between two bashes to remove permanent bash.

Blink
Short range teleport spell

Buff
To make something better (an ability, stats, items, etc.) including your hero

Burn
Commonly associated with for heros with mana-burning/destroying abilities. "Burn their hero mana!"

Cannon Fodder
A free kill, suicidal person

Carry
A hero that farms for a majority of the game then leads(carries) the team to victory.

Channeling
A HYBRID of Instant and Activated. Its a skill that takes effect as soon as you press the hotkey or skill button, some have casting time, delays or targeted. The spell constantly takes effect until duration ends or if the player takes another action such as move or use another spell. Being stunned also causes the channeling skill to stop.

Deny
Friendly units become targeted below 50%. Getting the killing hit on friendly units will prevent(deny) the enemy both gold and a portion of the xp. Friendly towers become targeted at a lower amount of hp, but denying these will grant the enemy less gold.

Disable
Spells or item ability that render one "helpless", might prevent him from running, attacking, casting of spells, etc.

Farm
Activity of gaining gold by attacking enemy spawns or neutral creeps. Farming also means earning gold.

Feed
Dying to enemy hence granting opponents gold and experience points making them stronger as a result.

Feeder
A player who repeatedly dies to enemy granting opponents gold and experience points making them stronger as a result.

Gank
The process of grouping together to ambush/kill heroes, same as rape and gangbang

Harassing
During the laning process, instead of farming the hero attempts to damage the enemies and keep them from farming, this can be done with auto attacks or spells.

Inhouse
A game in which players who join are from a specific channel/clan, usually seen as more of a competitive style of play as opposed to public games.

Instant ability
Skills that takes effect as soon as you press the hotkey or skill button. Some instant skills needs to be targeted first or have delays but CANNOT BE CANCELLED when stunned.

Jungling
This is where someone chooses to level up in the forest killing neutrals, rather than going into a lane.

Killsteal
Stealing a kill from your allies by delivering the final blow to kill enemy hero/tower/creeps/spawns, hence getting the kill score and gold.

Kongor
The strongest neutral creep in the map, near the first tower on the top side. All players of a team will receive gold if the killing blow is made by a player on the team.

Leech
Standing a safe distance from attacks and gaining experience without entering combat

Melee Dance
Melee hero sitting behind creep waves and running forward to get last hits for gold and xp.

Nerf
To make something worse(an ability, stats, items, etc.)

Neutral stacking
Attacking and pulling the neutrals in any area away from their spawn a few seconds before the minute mark(X:52 for example), which stacks multiple neutrals to be killed for burst amounts of gold.

Nuke
Magical/"Physical" spells / ability that require casting which is used to hurt a enemy hero.

Owning
Killing enemy heroes repeatedly.

Passive
This skill is always active and does not consume mana. Under this category are Auras. Auras affect not only the player's hero but also other heroes and even creeps, minions and summons.

Private
See In-House

Pulling
Generally pulling bottom(Legion) or top(Hellbourne) neutral creeps into the lane, which drags the lane creeps into the neutral area. This allows the lane to get closer to your tower, thus making it easier to creep and level. At the same time it gives both people in the lane gold and experience, one in the lane and one in the neutral camp.

Push
Concentrating on destroying towers on a specific lane and generally making grounds.

Ragequit
When someone leaves your game in a fit of rage over dying or some other action

Silence
Silence a hero to keep him from casting spells

Team sell
All items from the leaver's hero are sold at half price and everybody from his team receive equal part of the money.

Tower Diving
When a member or members of a team ignores the threat of a tower, pursuing into tower range and further into the enemy territory to kill an enemy player. A gank with multiple heroes is often accompanied by a tower dive.

Tower-hugging
Tower hugging simply means that you have no lane control and need the safety of the towers because you get killed if you leave it.
For example if someone complains about not standing a chance on his lane and he is told "hug tower"... it means that he should stand back and get experience while being close to the tower which grants safety. If he doesnt attack the creeps and sometimes denies or attacks own creeps below 50% he can keep the enemy creeps at the tower so he can level up while standing within tower range.