You can download HoN free here. Here’s the full FAQ from the currently flaky forums, most likely from the already growing player base.

Q. How does Free-to-Play affect me?

All existing players will be marked as Legacy accounts. Legacy accounts will no longer be obtainable and will continue to enjoy free access to the general hero pool. You will be able to play in Verified Only games, but can play in Basic games if you choose. Legacy players will continue to receive newly released heroes for free after the hero leaves Early Access.

Q. What is Early Access?

Independent of Free-to-Play is a new feature called Early Access. Players will be able to purchase Early Access to new heroes to play them before they are released for free to the rest of the Legacy players.

While heroes are Early Access, they will not be playable in Tournament Play.

There are many reasons for the introduction of the Early Access system, for a detailed explanation see Maliken’s post here: http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/sh…d.php?t=305655

Q. I already paid for HoN! Was my money wasted now that it’s Free-to-Play?

Not at all! Legacy accounts are now a rarity, part of our old business model – you’re getting additional new content (outside of any potential pay for content expansions) for free, which is a perk no longer available to new accounts whom have to unlock new content.

Q. Will Free-to-Play mean my games will be ruined by griefers and trolls?

By requiring players to either play a significant number of games or make a purchase before becoming Verified, players will have made an investment into their account. If a person griefs, they will lose this investment. We will be increasing our efforts to stop griefing through our Report a Player system so Verified players can be confident the matches they play will be good ones. Basic accounts will not have access to the Report A Player function.

Q. What about game modes that require my teammates to have access to the whole hero pool?

We’ve gone to great lengths to try to ensure that the HoN experience you’ve come to know and love will be as unchanged by Free-to-Play as possible. Game modes SD, BD, AR, and BP will require that non-legacy accounts have a Token or Game Pass in order to enter the match. The token allows them to play as any hero in the pool for that game – if they pick a hero they don’t own, the token is spent. This means that you can depend on any of your teammates having access to that crucial counter-pick in these modes, and not have to worry about team strategy being limited by what heroes your teammates have unlocked.

Q. Can I play with a friend I bring to HoN as a new Basic (free to play) account?

Yes you can, you simply will not be able to queue into a Verified Only pool.

Q. Where can I create an account and download the game?

You can create your account here. After making your account, you can download the game here.

Q. Will I need real money to play?

No. You will have access to a Rotating Hero Pool of 15 heroes and will be able to play without paying a cent.

Q. Who has a Basic account?

Anyone who has created an account since HoN went Free-to-Play and has not become Verified.

Q. What are the benefits of being Verified?

Verified players are able to queue into Verified Only Matchmaking, are able to use the Report a Player system, and are given 5 free tokens to use. Verified players can be assured that players they are playing with take their accounts as seriously as they do.

Q. How do I become Verified?
You can become verified by reaching level 5 or by purchasing Gold Goblin Coins. This is to ensure you are serious about your account.

Q. I signed up to play with my friend who is a long time HoN player, will we be able to queue in Match Making together?

Yes! Verified and Basic accounts can play together, but will be unable to queue into a Verified Only game until both players are Verified.

Q. If I only have access to 15 heroes, will I be at a disadvantage in game modes like Single Draft and Banning Pick?

Certain game modes in HoN were designed around having access to the full hero pool. For these modes, we’ve created Tokens and Passes. Single Draft, All Random, Banning Pick, and Banning Draft require either a Token or a Game Pass to play.

Game Passes let you play these modes for a certain amount of time, as much as you want, playing any hero you want. Tokens allow you to play, and will get spent if you choose a hero you do not normally own. This allows us to guarantee that, in these game modes, all of your teammates are capable of choosing that critical counter-pick hero, instead of having strategy be limited by a restricted hero pool.

You’ll get some Tokens for free when you become a Verified account. Aside from that, Tokens and Passes can be purchased via the in-game store.

Q. Can I still get a Legacy account?

No. These accounts are no longer available.

Q. Do I have to purchase heroes with real money if I want a hero not in the Hero Pool?

No. You can earn heroes by simply playing the game. However, if you would like to get a hero quicker, you can buy Gold Goblin Coins at http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/purchase.

Q. What are HoN’s system requirements?

You can find the system requirements at http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/specs_pop.html

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Basics
• Survivablity
• Creeps and Towers
• Items
• Hero Classifications (coming soon)
• Credits

Introduction

I thought I would write some of the information that I constantly say in games online to new players or via the in game comms. It is a joint effort with friends the guide will be updated, so if you have any piece of information you want to contribute with, feel free to post it in this thread.

Text in Red is the Heroes of Newerth item name
Text in Green is the same item but the DotA name for it.

Basics

• Don’t assume you always have to be fighting to win the game.
• You get experience for being about 2/3 of the screen width away when something dies, you don’t have to kill it yourself.
• You get gold from a kill if you make the final, killing blow on it.
• Early on, getting experience is more important than getting gold.
• Killing enemy heroes gets you roughly 200 gold and some experience.
• Dying costs you a %age of your gold, and means your opponents level ALOT faster than you. **[[EDIT 30*Your Level rather than a percentage of your current gold. So a level 4 hero will lose exactly 30*4 = 120 gold.]]**
• Press the quote key ‘ (or you can remap this in the control’s section) to show units health/mana bars above them.
• Heroes abilities decide games.

Therefore, if you don’t recognise the hero you are against in your lane, ask your teammates what to watch out for. They will tell you the nastiest things you will face.

Survivablity

Early in game, stand nearby action but don’t be involved all the time, don’t make yourself a target for enemy heroes. Sit levelling up for a while and you gradually get a small amount of gold in the “background”. If you make a few creep kills you get even more gold.

• When you have little health early on, creep hits on you hurt quite alot.
• If you don’t have much health and you stick around near combat, the enemy will try to ambush you.
• Your skills are weak early on, and it takes many hits and spells to kill a hero. It is best to conserve your mana.
• Skills increase along with damage and combat later in the game can be brutally fast.
• If you conserve your mana it could be the difference between life and death either for yourself, allys or enemy heroes. (Stuns for example)
• Sometimes no matter how hard you try to play well, you will get beaten on.

If you are levels behind in your lane and getting hurt badly every time you go into combat, CALL IT EARLY and request a swap. Other people in your team doing better may be able to swap with you and stop the rot. You could also ask team mates to come and “gank/ambush” the people in your lane.

Always try to be staying alive, don’t go for the jugular until you are sure of your capabilities, and the enemies.

Safe Buys
I would suggest people who have a problem with survivablity take into consideration and perhaps buy these items to help.

Fortified Bracelet / Bracer: + 3 to Strength, +3 to All Attributes. (found in the Initiation Recipe shop)

I would try and get two of these to begin with, the reason for this is so that you have some extra stats and more importantly a lot of extra health which will help you survive, if you have picked a strength hero you will get extra damage.

Steam Boots / Power Treads: +65 Movement speed, 10 Strength, and +30 attack speed. Click to toggle stats. (found in the Initiation Recipe shop)

To make these you need to get [ Marchers / Boots of Speed: +50 Movement Speed - 500 gold ] – which are extremely important for most people as it helps you get into or out of fights a lot quicker (aswell as into Lanes to creep). The reason for this item is so that you can have improved movement speed, attack speed and gain some extra health again. Combined with the Bracelets you won’t be extremely squishy and most likely the enemy will have a harder job killing you which is what we want to avoid to begin with.

Creeps & Towers

Your hero will automatically attack units that are close by to it such as creeps(term: Auto Attacking). Here is a run down of why this is a bad thing and hopefully teach new players the reasons why last hitting is something that all HoN/DotA players should aim to perfect.

• Creeps will give gold for getting the killing blow on them.
• Friendly creeps can be denied.
• You kill your own creep to deny your enemy experience and gold, and thus giving you an advantage.
• Creeps are only deniable when on 50% health or lower.
• To deny creeps you should press A and target the friendly creep
• The creep waves are ALWAYS equal to each other, so any interference from players will make the creep wave move down or up a lane.
• If you put equal amounts of damage into friendly and enemy creeps then when the creep waves meet again they should fight in exactly the same place you were just at or extremely close by.
• If you auto attack and push the creeps forward and continue to creep this means that you could become vunerable to being ambushed.

Towers

• Towers hurt alot early on.
• Towers target ANYTHING which is attacking a friendly hero (or should).
• You have to take towers down, but it is much easier late game than early.
• The final hit on a tower gets you hundreds of gold.
• You can attempt to deny a tower by last hitting it
• Towers can only be denied when they are on 10% or less health.
• Denying a tower grants you & your team mates 100/150gold each and non for the opposing team

It is never really a good idea to be pushing towers early on unless your team has decided you need to win the game early and you are a team that is based around early mid game wins. If you kill a tower early the likelyhood is that the creep wave will end up on the enemies side of the map for huge portions of the game until it is either pushed back by enemy heroes (which they should try and attempt not to do by last hitting and denying to keep the creep wave safe in a friendly area) or until they push and take down 1-2 towers to equal each side.

Later in the game you must group up as 3/4/5 players and push one lane, usually the middle to take barracks down. Once you have done this, go another lane. If your team starts grouping you should NOT be alone unless you know what you are doing and why and when. (hint : if you need to read this post, you are dozens of games away from knowing what, why and when.)

Items

• Buying items suited to your heroes helps quite a bit.
• Buying the wrong items just plain sucks.

Therefore : if you are not sure what to buy, ask a team mate with more experience for a build order. Even among experience players there are disagreements and opinions, but they won’t be significantly different. Remind them it is a build for a new player so they don’t make it too ambitious for you.

Starting Items

(This is what I personally like to buy to start off with in 90% of games I play)

• Pretenders Crown / Circlet of Nobility: +2 All Attributes – 185 gold –
• I buy TWO of these to turn into Bracelets.
• Found in the Accessories section of the shop.
• These will give you extra health/mana/damage.

Now you need some regeneration or healing items so that you can stay in lane for a longer period of time, because its going to be 99% sure you will be taking some damage from creeps or heroes in the lane.

• Healing Potion / Healing Salve: Heals 400 HP over 10 seconds on a friendly unit. 1 Charge. Dispels on attack. – 100 gold.

I also buy TWO of these (found in the Supplies section of the shop). You need to make sure that you stay away from any incoming damage when you activate this heal potion on yourself as any damage will stop the regen effect.

Alternativly you can buy

• Runes of the Blight / Ancient Tango of Essifation: Allows the bearer to consume a tree, restoring 115 hit points over 16 seconds. 3 charges. – 90 gold.

Usually people buy TWO sets of these runes. The good thing about the Runes of Blight over the Healing Potions are that they don’t stop the regen effect should you take damage.

Overall it is best that what ever items you decide to go for at the start you should always look to take some health regen items in the form of items or consumables. If you turn up to a lane with no health regen items the likelyhood is that you will get pushed out of lane quickly by enemy heroes that have noticed this and get some attacks in on you trying to force you out of lane.

Hero Classifications

So this section is to explain to people what class or role each hero is/plays within Heroes of Newerth. A lot of the heroes are good at several things and not just one – I will try and give a little run down of what they are good at.

Carry/Assassins
Heroes which specialize at killing other heroes through physical damage. Most heroes that have windwalk, an invsisibility skill, or blink can fall into this catergory. Often these heroes need to get more gold than other classes.

Disablers
Heroes who possess the ability to disable other characters, basically forcing them into a disadvantage while they attempt to fight or flee. Disables include any spells that move the enemy without his or her consent, stun an enemy, reduce movement speed, disallow movement, reduce damage, reduce attack speed, reduce armor, prevent physical attack or prevent spell casting. Though many spells fall under these catergories, the general rule of an effect disable spell is a spell that can extend and enemy’s precence in combat against his or her will, which therefor only includes the first four of the listed effects. Also, passive abilities are often ignored as disables. Pollywog Priest and Puppeter are examples as they both have two skills that are classed as Disable.

Support
Heroes whose skills are meant to directly aid the rest of the team. Heroes with healing or protective skills fall into this catergory. Pushers can be counted as support, although somtimes they can be used individually instead of working together with the team.

Nukers
Heroes which possess the ability to cause an significant amount of damage in a single instant via use of an activated spell in lieu of a physical attack. E.g. Pyromancer.

Pushers
Heroes which can quickly destroy enemy towers and creep generators due to their ability to summon additional units or deal damage to an area of enemy creeps.

Stunners
Heroes who posses the ability to stun other characters. Certain heroes have passive skills enabling their attacks to have a chance of stunning. When such heroes are able to keep an enemy constantly stunned it is known informally as permastun or stunlock.

Tanks
Heroes who can absorb huge amounts of damage with either high health or armor count. Typically used to tank towers or enemies.

Intelligence Heroes

[Blacksmith]
Stunner
Nuker
Disabler(Slow)
Support

[Nymphora]
Stunner
Disabler
Nuker/Pusher
Support

[Pollywog Priest]
Disabler
Nuker
Pusher

[Tempest]
Stunner
Disabler
Pusher

[Zephyr]
Pusher(Early/Mid Game)
Disabler(Slow)
Assassin

[Pyromancer]
Nuker/Pusher
Stunner

[Torturer]
Nuker/Pusher
Stunner

[Puppet Master]
Disabler
Nuker(Ultimate)

[Hellbringer]
Pusher
Disabler(Slow)
Stun(Ultimate)
Pusher
Support

[Demented Shaman]
Nuker/Pusher
Support
Disabler/Stunner (Snare Skill)

[Defiler]
Nuker
Pusher
Disabler(Silence)

[Glacius]
Disabler
Support(Aura)
Nuker/Pusher

[Voodoo Jester]
Stunner
Nuker(Maledict/Ultimate)
Support(Heal)

Agility Heroes

[Moon Queen]
Carry
Nuker
Pusher

[Wildsoul]
Carry
Tanker(Bear Form)

[Scout]
Assassin/Carry
Nuker(Ultimate)

[Magebane]
Carry
Nuker(Ultimate)

[Nighthound]
Assassin/Carry
Disabler(Cloud)

[Swiftblade]
Carry

[Slither]
Nuker
Pusher(Toxin Wards)
Maybe Carry

[Chronos]
Carry
Disabler

[Madman]
Carry/Assassin

[Blood Hunter]
Carry
Disabler(Silence)

[Arachna]
Carry
Disabler(Orb effect slow)

[Dark Lady]
Carry
Disabler

[Soulstealer]
Carry
Nuker/Pusher

Strength Heroes

[Hammerstorm]
Carry
Stunner

[Jereziah]
Support
Pusher

[Legionaire]
Tank
Nuker
Disabler

[Predator]
Carry/Tank
Disabler(Slow & Armor reduction)

[Behemoth]
Stunner
Support
Nuker/Pusher

[Armadon]
Tank
Disabler(Slow from Snot)

[Pebbles]
Stunner
Tank
Support

[Keeper of the Forest]
Support
Disabler

[Devourer]
Support
Disabler
Tank

[Electrician]
Disabler
Tank
Support

[Pharoah]
Carry or Tank
Stunner

[Kraken]
Support(Ultimate)
Tank

[Accursed]
Support
Tank

[War Beast]
Carry/Tank

[Pestilence]
Stunner
Support(Ultimate)
Tank

Credits

Shamelessly stole some of the Item pictures/text from Hucklecats thread on Items which can be found here -> http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?t=521