For Public Beta Test Patch Notes, see Version 4.4.4/PBT

Community[]

HoNiversary[]

May 12th of this year marks a huge moment in Heroes of Newerth history as we observe HoN's 8th year as a major online multiplayer game. To commemorate this occasion, this HoNiversary's celebrations include a whopping 50% gold sale (May 11th until May 15th), triple diamond odds (May 16 until May 23rd) in Plinko and a 3x silver bonus (May 8th until May 22th)! Merrick also has been gracious enough to sell Limited Edition and Holiday Edition avatars again during this celebration (May 7th until May 24th).
The fun doesn't end there! Merrick also made his own grab bags he's putting up for sale filled to the brim with Holiday Edition, Limited Edition, Gold, Ultimate, Early Access and Debut Edition Avatars! Grab them before they run out! (May 8th until May 22th)
Our trusty Newerthian friends will be celebrating this wonderful day with us. Look forward to entertaining in-game changes to some of your HoN's favorite units.

Public Beta Test (PBT)[]

Public Beta Test (PBT) is the new game mode that brings a hardcore, ruthless & unforgiving gameplay experience that Heroes of Newerth was originally known for, and the environment that its legacy players thrive in. It brings back a large majority of the gameplay mechanics that HoN used to have, while simultaneously breathing life into the gameplay with a new map, new bosses, and a revamped hero pool and item pool.

PBT is also the mode where players can test changes potentially coming to the main mode in the future! All on 1 client, with little to no extra assets required to be downloaded each patch.
This mode will be available to play in the Map Rotation slot on the Mode Select screen until further notice.
The compilation of the full changelog throughout PBT's lifetime will be available in the Public Beta Test (PBT) Feedback forums.
Note that unless stated otherwise, all section headers with "(PBT)" or "(PBT Only)" mentions will only apply to the PBT mode. These particular changes will not affect all game modes!

PBT Feedback[]

All players now have a clear voice if they wish to see something changed! Simply fill out the feedback form at the end of every PBT game and make your comments concise, constructive, and justified.
Additionally, players can visit the Public Beta Test (PBT) Feedback section in the official HoN forums and have a more centralized location of constructive feedback. The PBT Feedback subforums will be located directly below the General Discussion forums, and are a place for having more elaborate balance/design discussions pertaining to PBT. This is the best way to ensure that your feedback is seen and taken into consideration!

Ranked Pick[]

New Picking Mode: Ranked Pick
- Ranked Pick is our new competitive picking mode. This mode allows everyone on your team to have an influence on Hero Bans and Hero Picks, and does not restrict that influence to the player with the highest Rank on your team. Because of its pick mode mechanics, Ranked Pick encourages teamwork and strategic drafting to maximize your team's synergy and counter the opponent's hero picks and strategies.
- PBT's Pick Mode will be Ranked Pick.

Banning Phase

The game starts with 20 seconds for every player to vote for Blind Banning heroes.
- Each player only has 2 votes.
- A player may choose to make 0 votes or 1 vote if they wish.
- Players can only see their own votes.
After all Blind Bans are made or until the timer expires, the game bans the top 4 heroes that have the most votes for being Blind Banned.
- No indication of how many votes were made for each hero are given to players.
If 4 heroes with the most votes for being Blind Banned cannot be chosen because of ties, then the game chooses randomly between the ones that require a tiebreaker.
- e.g. There is a 3-2-2-1-1-1 distribution for Blind Ban votes. The game will select the 3-2-2 heroes, but the remaining heroes with the 1 Blind Ban on each of them will be randomly selected for the 4th hero.

Picking Phase

A random team is chosen to pick first.
Any player from the team can pick a hero for themselves. When the number of picks per team in a turn is done, it switches to the other team.
The number of picks per team when alternating picking turns is: 1-2-2-2-2-1.
Picking time per turn is 30 seconds. If the 30 seconds expires and picks are not fully used for that turn, the game will pick a random hero for the top-most player on that team for the remaining hero picks that turn, giving priority to players that have a hero shadowpicked.
Once all players have picked their hero, a 20 second time period is provided for players to briefly discuss their general strategy and to swap heroes (if necessary).

Design[]

Chi

Crippling Puncture
- Effect Type and Damage Type changed from Magic to Superior Magic.
- Damage changed from 80 to 75/100/125/150.
A Thousand Cuts
- Effect Type and Damage Type of the on-touch effects changed from Magic to Superior Magic.
- The return on-touch effects now use the large radius (250) rather than reverting to the small radius (80).
- Projectile speed increased from 950 to 1200 units per second.
- Mana Cost reduced from 100/110/120/130 to 70/80/90/100.
- Cooldown reduced from 4 seconds to 2.5 seconds.
Enlightenment
- Effect Type and Damage Type changed from Magic to Superior Magic.
- Charge refresh time decreased from 19/16/13/10 seconds to 12/10/8/6 seconds.
Ancestral Assault
- Cooldown reduced from 100/80/60 seconds to 60 seconds.
- Effect Type and Damage Type changed from Magic to Superior Magic.

Quality-of-Life Features[]

The following Quality-of-Life changes apply to all game modes (i.e. not just PBT), and were made to drastically improve the player experience for all of our international players:

Matchmaking now only matches teams together if the difference in the average Kill-Death ratio between each team is within a certain threshold.
Players will now join chat channels based on Region when logging in (e.g. NA-1, EU-1, AU-1, LAT-1, CIS-1, etc.) as opposed to general chat channels (e.g. HON-1, HON-2, etc.).

Remake Votes can only be called until the 2-minute mark in a match.
Concede Vote can now be called after any termination or disconnect where the player cannot come back.
- Concede Vote can still be called after the 15-minute mark if these conditions are not met.

Players will now receive a personal notification whenever they successfully stack a Neutral Camp.
- Special messages will appear if players stack multiple Neutral Camps at the same time.

Added an option to enable Selection Circles around every hero at all times.
- Improves visibility of heroes in the midst of combat.
- This option is found under Options -> Interface -> Gameplay.
- Enabled by default.

Mechanical Changes that affect all Modes[]

Camera Field of View has been increased by 10%.
Neutral aggro range during the day has been decreased from 300 to 150.
- Prevents accidental neutral aggro when travelling to another destination.
Neutral Creeps' Movement Speed normalized to 325.
Lane Creeps will no longer avoid re-aggroing to the ranged lane creeps after being aggro'ed by a hero.
Melee Lane Creeps damage multiplier against Neutrals decreased from 150% to 125%.
Ranged Lane Creeps damage multiplier against Neutrals decreased from 150% to 75%.
Ranged Lane Creep aggro range increased from 500 to 800.
Experience Range increased from 1000 to 1300 units.

Casual Mode Changes[]

Passive Gold per minute (GPM) increased from 100 to 120.
Proximity Gold reduced from 20 to 0.
Gold bounty per level reduced from 12 to 10.
Buyback cost multiplier decreased from 1.75x to 1.5x.

The following changes no longer apply to Casual Mode:
- Unshared Experience from a hero kill is higher between levels 1-6.
- Assists share the Hero Kill Experience Bounty globally for allies (as opposed to allies within proximity).

Matchmaking Maps & Modes[]

Champions of Newerth (CoN)
- Map: Forests of Caldavar
- Mode: Counter Pick
Mid Wars
- Hero Ban
- All Random
Public Beta Test (PBT)
- Ranked Pick

New Content[]

New Forsaken Archer Avatar: Yumi

The legendary annual Shao Temple archery competition is a joyful event that brings villagers together from throughout the Sang-La Mountains and allows the monks to share food, tea, and news from the lands beyond the mountains. Yumi has been dominating the event as the first -- and only -- female kyudoka since she was a small girl, for her natural abilities with the bow quickly surpassed those of her instructor, then her kyudojo, until the Shao Temple became the only place that could harness her true potential. The monks taught her the way of shin-zen-bi, to shoot with truth, goodness, and beauty, so that when she uses her bow and arrow with a good and virtuous spirit toward all things, her archery will become naturally beautiful and true. Skeptical at first, Yumi finally embraced this training and grew to understand its power, and her already amazing skills became unbelievable.

Because of the beauty and virtue integral to her archery, she was stunned when the monks first told her it could be used as a weapon. But when they told her of the atrocities happening outside the walls of the temple, of the Hellbourne and their soulless cruelty, she realized the virtuous path was leading her straight into battle with these daemons. Every raise, draw, and release had prepared her for this, and she and her bow would share the beauty of her kyudo with these corrupted fiends one arrow at a time.

New Taunt: Shikigami Taunt

Show your opponents they're nothing but target practice with the Shikigami Taunt!

New Night Hound Avatar: Wildcat

The cruelly playful Lynx Tribe of Death's Cradle is infamous for stalking and chasing their victims before pouncing and toying with them, finally ending their misery only after the entertainment becomes tedious. When they ambushed a gypsy caravan and systematically slaughtered everyone aboard, the last thing they expected to find when they commenced the looting was a sleeping infant, swaddled in blankets. Even the Lynx are not that heartless (usually), so they took the orphan into their fold and trained her in the ways of the feline huntress. The girl took to it like a cat to catnip, and embraced the traditions and tactics so fully she went to great lengths to change her appearance to something closer to her fellow huntresses. She may still look somewhat human, but when the claws come out, she is all Lynx.

New Parallax Avatar: Cruxlord

The Cruxlords are an extraterrestrial race even more ancient than the Artificers. They seek the ancient, powerful objects held most secret throughout the universe, for within those items are the answers to unlocking even more power. Though Andromeda's memory is still incomplete, she senses that the Cruxlords may have harvested the original dark matter and created the Fulcrums that became the devastating weapon of the Artificers, sending them forth to destroy entire planets and scatter the debris into space. Scanning the dross for ancient relics is much easier than searching intact worlds and dealing with their tedious inhabitants, but this Newerth has proven more resilient than any other planet, and now the Cruxlords must descend upon it and handle things themselves.

New Name Color: High Roller

Show all of Newerth your winning ways with the High Roller Name Color!

Bug Fixes & Optimizations[]

General[]

"Do Not Disturb" mode (enabled by typing in "/dnd") will now properly prevent Instant Message (IM) from popping up in the chat channel list.

UI[]

Player colour indicators in the hero pick screens are now thicker to further distinguish them from the background.
The Report-A-Player (RAP) button (or window, if you started a report in-game) will now properly display at the end of games.
MVP Selection will no longer display in replays.
The HoN logo in the middle bar of the main lobby screen is no longer pixelated/low resolution.

Heroes[]

A few heroes ( Electrician, Myrmidon in melee form, Prisoner, Salomon in melee form, Scout) now properly have 150 Attack Range (instead of having 128).