4.8.5

Version 4.8.5 - 28 July 2020

== New Content ==

New Monkey King Avatar: Jade Macaque

This higher-definition Monkey King avatar (originally Six Eared Macaque) was taken from the HoN China client. Refined with jade visual effects, Jade Macaque is ready to dazzle Newerth!

New Animated & Static Wallpaper for the Login Screen: King Klout

This may not show up for some clients due to technical issues. This will be resolved in the future.

== New Items ==

New Item (Supplies): Golden Apple

Cost: 70 Gold
Non-stackable, non-shareable consumable item. Cannot be placed in a Consumable item slot.
Passive effect: +0.3 Mana Regeneration per second.
Active effect: instantly restores 80 Health to self.
Cooldown: 5 seconds
This item provides some extra burst healing in the laning phase, while providing a tiny amount of Mana Regeneration utility if not consumed.

New Item (Supplies): Lunar Tear

Cost: 90 Gold
Non-stackable, non-shareable consumable item. Cannot be placed in a Consumable item slot.
Passive effect: +0.4 Health Regeneration per second.
Active effect: instantly restores 100 Mana to the target (can be double-activated to use on self).
Range: 350
Cooldown: 5 seconds
This item provides an extra burst of mana when needed during the laning phase, while providing a tiny amount of Health Regeneration utility if not consumed.

== Forests of Caldavar (“New”) ==

The main goal of the changes to the “new” Forests of Caldavar map is to make the viability of each laning setup choice to be more on par with one another, while retaining their own unique benefits and disadvantages.

Legion bottom lane and Hellbourne top lane trees were rearranged significantly.
Legion’s southeastern most pull camp: a tree to the left of the camp (and to the right of the Observatory) has been removed to allow heroes to move through the nearby path.
There were far too many spots near the lane that made it nearly impossible to find a hero unless you were right next to the hero (and even then, sometimes it was nearly impossible to do so)., which led to unhealthy play patterns by solo unsafe lane heroes.
These changes address that issue, while still allowing for some niche hiding spots to be discovered. While this may appear to be a nerf to solo unsafe lane heroes, the jungle changes will more than compensate for that.

= Jungle Changes =

Hellbourne bottom lane - Medium pull camp (unsafe lane)

Camp is now more accessible to the unsafe lane to be pulled into the lane
Trees in this area now allow for better vision from the unsafe lane, while the vision of that camp ends up being more obscured for the safe lane
Also reworked tree patch in this area to more closely mirror the Hellbourne side of the map.

Legion Ancients camp

Now spawns a Hard neutral camp instead of an Ancients neutral camp.
The other central Hard neutral camp has been replaced with a Medium neutral camp.
A few trees have been removed to allow for more visibility & to allow for a slightly easier double stack.

Legion left-most Medium & Hard neutral camps

Camps were shifted slightly towards the bottom-right.
Leash range of these camps have been reverted to normal.
Path between both camps are now more cleared of obstructions.
Distance between both camps are now more similar to the Hellbourne equivalent (top-right-most) camps.
These changes prevent the camps from being pulled towards the Legion middle lane, while simultaneously solving the difficulties of being difficult to double-stack these camps (due to a prior temporary fix).

Legion top lane - Medium pull camp (unsafe lane)

Camp is now more accessible to the unsafe lane to be pulled into the lane.
Trees in this area now allow for better vision from the unsafe lane, while the vision of that camp ends up being more obscured for the safe lane.

Hellbourne Ancients camp

Now spawns a Hard neutral camp instead of an Ancients neutral camp.
The other central Hard neutral camp has been replaced with a Medium neutral camp.
This camp has also been rotated to face the new Hard camp more directly.

Hellbourne top-right-most Hard camp

This neutral camp was shifted slightly downward.
Leash range of the camp has been reverted to normal.
This prevents the camps from being pulled towards the Hellbourne top lane.
Most of these jungle changes were done to balance the jungles between the Legion side and Hellbourne side, as well as make the top and bottom lanes slightly more equal in terms of the safe and unsafe lanes.
Overall, these changes (coupled with other changes in previous patches like the Merrick’s Rune change) should make laning setup choices more balanced with regards to one another (any permutation/combination of 2-1-2 vs. 1-1-2-jungle and other dynamic variants involving partial/full roamers).

= Neutral Creep Changes =

Dragon

Gold Bounty: 28-36 -> 35-45
Physical Armor: 2-> 3
Attack Damage: 55-> 60

Dragon Master

Gold Bounty: 100-120 -> 130-145
Magic Armor: 12 -> 10

Dreadbeetle

Gold Bounty: 44-52 -> 55-65
Physical Armor: 3 -> 6
Base Attack Time: 1.4 -> 1.3

Dreadbeetle Queen

Gold Bounty: 74-82 -> 90-105
Physical Armor: 6 -> 10
Base Attack Time: 1.4 -> 1.3

Predasaur

Gold Bounty: 48-56 -> 60-70
Physical Armor: 3.5 -> 6
Max Health: 900 -> 1000

Predasaur Crusher

Gold Bounty: 58-66 -> 70-85
The previous Gold Bounty nerfs have been reverted because there will now only be 1 Ancient Camp in the “new” Forests of Caldavar map.
Some stat adjustments were also made to make the camps more comparable to one another in terms of power, while still retaining their unique strengths and weaknesses.

= Mid Wars Changes =

The main goal of these changes to Mid Wars is to resolve some common frustrations encountered by players in this mode, while slowly leaning towards rewarding properly applied early/mid game aggressive plays & pushes.

Zorgath and Transmutanstein return to Mid Wars!
Say goodbye to Snotter Boss until next time!
Matchmaking constraints for Mid Wars are slightly less relaxed, which should result in increasing the chances of getting a more enjoyable match.
Earliest concede time availability reduced from 10 minutes to 5 minutes.
This vote still requires 5 votes from a single team to actually pass (at least until 15 minutes where the usual reduction in required votes occurs).
Backdoor Protection is now applied to the Melee and Ranged Barracks as well, and grants the Barracks 50% Damage Reduction against non-hero units while active (Main Base structure has 50% Damage Reduction against non-hero units by default already).
Additionally, the Backdoor Protection state on the Main Base Structure and Barracks now also grants 50% Damage Reduction against heroes.
This change should help slow down uncoordinated & uncommitted attempts to end the game by backdooring to the point where the defending team can react and take action before the Main Base Structure falls.
The intention is not to remove backdooring (as it has its place to end the game when there are long stalemates for long periods of time), but to make it more of a committal and coordinated strategy to execute & introduce more opportunities to counterplay it. We understand that games ended abruptly without much means for counterplay makes for an anti-climatic ending, but having backdooring as an alternate game-ending option for long games is still necessary if the circumstances make it viable.
Main Base Structure’s Health Regeneration per second reduced from 50 to 20 (when not damaged by an enemy within the last 10 seconds).
This change partially addresses the frustration of getting the base to a low Health value, only to see it regenerate to full Health too quickly.
Neutral camp composition has been changed (no longer spawns the traditional Hard neutral camps).
Instead, now spawns 1 of the following camps:
Dragon Master, Skeleton King, Vagabond Leader, Ice Ogre
Predasaur Crusher, Vulture Lord, Minotaur, Wolf Commander
Dreadbeetle Queen, Catman Champion, Vulture Lord, Wild Hunter
This change provides minimal disruption to the current map, while making the Gold & Experience value of the neutral camp more suitable for the mid & late game (rather than something that can be tackled in the early game by 1-2 heroes) and simultaneously discourages raw jungling early on (to keep the spirit of the map’s name - Mid Wars).
Furthermore, this change allows Ophelia and Parasite to make use of Ancient Creeps if they have Staff of the Master.
This also allows these heroes more variety of creeps they can take control of in the early game, though the Ancient creep has to be cleared (or the camp needs to be stacked) for them to spawn more neutral creeps they can take control of in the early game.
Respawn time equation has been changed.
Old equation: Respawn Time (s) = 0.6 * Hero_Level
New equation: Respawn Time (s) = (0.5 * Hero_Level) + 3.75 * (2 - Ally_Nonbase_Towers_Remaining)
The new respawn times allow for slightly faster early game respawns, while extending the respawn times by 3.75 seconds for each of your ally non-base towers that have been destroyed.
This gives pushing some tangible benefit in Mid Wars and disfavours turtling, without making early/mid game strategies too snowbally in nature.
Overall, this increases the respawn time at level 25 from 17 seconds (in all situations) to 12.5/16.25/20 seconds when 0/1/2 of your non-base towers are down. Further adjustments may be made in the future if this does not prove to be enough of a change.

== Design ==

Max Disconnection Time reduced from 5 minutes to 4 minutes.
AFK Timer duration reduced from 4 minutes to 2.5 minutes.
AFK Warning time reduced from 3 minutes to 1.5 minutes.
While we understand that real-life situations & technical difficulties can happen once in a blue moon, they should not be happening frequently in any capacity.
Players should be active in the game for as much time as possible without disrupting the gameplay for others, and these changes help encourage players to make sure that they exhibit due diligence on their part to do so.

Fortification of Sol / Demonic Fortification

Now goes on a 90 second cooldown when the game starts.
Prevents players from accidentally triggering it at the start of the game while typing & transitioning from the hero pick lobby to the in-game map.

= Staff of the Master & Master’s Legacy Changes =

Balphagore

Hell on Newerth

Staff of the Master effect change (to pre-existing):
The initial application of Demonic Pathogen (through this ability) now only affects enemy heroes (instead of enemy heroes and creeps).
Demonic Pathogen (when applied through this ability) state duration reduced from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds.

Keeper of the Forest

Strength in Numbers

Staff of the Master effect change (to pre-existing):
Cooldown increased from 30 seconds to 60 seconds (for the tree sight enchanting active ability).

Monkey King

Illusive Dash

Staff of the Master effect addition (new):
Can now dash up to 3 times (instead of 2).
The final dash instance deals 0.7x damage.

Tundra

Piercing Shards

Staff of the Master effect addition (new):
Cooldown reduced from 13 seconds to 4 seconds.

Wretched Hag

Bat Blast

Staff of the Master changes (to pre-existing):
Cooldown reduced from 70 seconds to 60 seconds.

= Heroes =

Amun-Ra

Agility growth per level reduced from 1.8 to 1.5.

Path of Destruction

Cooldown increased from 12/11/10/9 seconds to 13/12/11/10 seconds.

Ignite

Cooldown increased from 12/10/8/6 seconds to 13/11/9/7 seconds.

Arachna

Attack Range increased from 550 to 575.

Bushwack

Side Step

Mana Cost reduced from 30 to 20.

Spiked Dart

Stacks of Jungle Toxin applied to enemies within 300 radius of the target changed from 1 to 1/1/2/2.

Jungle Toxin

Now Reveals affected targets.
Note that this does not grant innate Sight of the target, but simply means that affected targets are detected as though they are not Stealthed.

Doctor Repulsor

Starting Attack Damage changed from 47-57 to 50-54.
Attack action time reduced from 500ms to 350ms.

Magnetic Contraption

Cooldown increased from 4 seconds to 10/8/6/4 seconds.
Cast backswing reduced from 400ms to 300ms.

Opposite Charges

Mana Cost reduced from 100 to 70/80/90/100.
Duration reduced from 1/1.5/2/2.5 seconds to 1/1.4/1.8/2.2 seconds.
No longer applies a Movement Speed Slow to self upon use.

Electric Frenzy

Now also resets your autoattack cooldown upon using an ability.
Magic Damage increased from 30/50/70/90 to 40/60/80/100.
Now grants +50 Attack Speed for the boosted attack (helps make this one attack launch faster).

Ludicrous Speed

No longer resets your autoattack cooldown upon use (since Electric Frenzy does that now).
No longer Stunned while travelling.
Instead, Doctor Repulsor is Perplexed (unable to use items) while travelling.
This means that Doctor Repulsor can autoattack & cast spells while Ludicrous Speed is active!
The Perplexed state remains on Doctor Repulsor for 0.8 seconds after exiting Ludicrous Speed.
Magic Damage dealt per 100 units travelled reduced from 15/20/25 to 6/12/18.
Max Magic Damage dealt per instance reduced from 300/400/500 to 200/300/400.
Cooldown increased from 0.3 seconds to 0.4 seconds.
Doctor Repulsor has an odd power curve due to the nature of Ludicrous Speed. His laning presence has been virtually non-existent because of his long range ganking potential at level 6, so some raw damage was taken away from Ludicrous Speed, while giving him much better tools for laning & the early game in general.
These changes do weaken the raw damage output through his ultimate alone, but the autoattack reset mechanic on Electric Frenzy opens up new combo routes & makes micromanaging his mana pool for Ludicrous Speed even more important. Player mechanical skill in terms of mouse speed & accuracy, cancelling the cast backswing of his abilities, as well as taking advantage of some returning mechanics on Ludicrous Speed will optimize the effectiveness of Doctor Repulsor, while simultaneously retaining options for counterplay (e.g. the Perplex state on Doctor Repulsor means item usage is not immediately available to him after exiting Ludicrous Speed).
Overall, these changes favour Doctor Repulsor more in terms of getting that long range ganking power spike at level 6 (which is his unique strength compared to every other hero), without frontloading the power on Ludicrous Speed itself. The changes make him less effective when played as a raw carry if relying on the damage from Ludicrous Speed, and more of a core hero that focuses on capitalizing on the uniqueness of his ganker-carry role and playstyle.

Electrician

Static Grip

Duration reduced from 2/2.6/3.2/3.8 seconds to 1.5/2/2.5/3 seconds.
Magic Damage per second increased from 50 to 60.

Ellonia

Flash Freeze

Base Magic Damage increased from 50/70/90/110 to 55/80/105/130.

Emerald Warden

Silencing Shot

Mana Cost increased from 50 to 60/70/80/90.

Hunter’s Command

Wolves now deal 0.5x damage on impact if it hits targets that you do not actually have sight of.
Cooldown reduced from 18 seconds to 16 seconds.

Overgrowth

Mana Cost increased from 60 to 60/70/80/90.
Cooldown increased from 9 seconds to 10 seconds.
The delay to activate the self-destruct ability (default hotkey “D”) on the overgrowth after it spawns has been increased from 0.4 seconds to 0.5 seconds.

Engineer

Spider Mines

Cooldown increased from 5 seconds to 8 seconds.
Now has a max chase time of 3 seconds (will detonate if it has not done so at this point).

Gauntlet

Grapple

Range increased from 725/850/975/1100 to 800/900/1000/1100.

Geomancer

Dig

Magic Damage changed from 100/150/200/250 to 80/140/200/260.

Geo Stalk

Tremorsense pulses are now emitted every 2 seconds (frequency has been improved from 3 seconds).

Goldenveil

Perch & Plunge

Plunge: delay before Goldenveil lands to apply the Magic Damage & Stun increased from 0.85 seconds to 0.9 seconds.

Grinex

Shadow Step

Collision Magic Damage increased from 40/70/100/130 to 60/90/120/150.
Stun duration on collision increased from 1/1.2/1.4/1.6 seconds to 1.35/1.5/1.65/1.8 seconds.

Rift Stalk

Now applies -1/1.25/1.5/1.75 Armor to an enemy target for 5 seconds upon attacking out of Rift Stalk.
This effect also applies to Shadow Step’s impact effect on the main target.
With the solo unsafe lane (“suicide” lane) option being more viable this patch, Grinex has been adjusted accordingly to excel in this laning choice (just like in the past)!

Hellbringer

Intelligence growth per level reduced from 3.3 to 2.8.

Evil Presence

Range reduced from 1200 to 800.
Active state on enemies: healing for Hellbringer reduced from 15/20/25/30% to 10/15/20/25% of damage received by the affected enemy target.

Ichor

Strength growth per level increased from 2.4 to 2.6.
Attack Range increased from 350 to 475.

Keeper of the Forest

Nature’s Guidance

Now grants the affected ally unit +10% Movement Speed while active.
Root state duration on an enemy increased from 0.8/1.2/1.6/2 seconds to 1.2/1.6/2/2.4 seconds.
Root state now deals 40 Magic Damage per second to the affected enemy target while active.

Legionnaire

Whirling Blade

Can now be toggled on and off.
Primarily intended for niche usages, such as last hitting creeps under your tower.

Lodestone

Headsmash

Mana Cost increased from 0 to 50.
Cooldown increased from 6 seconds to 7 seconds.

Shatterstorm

Cooldown increased from 75/60/45 seconds to 90/75/60 seconds.

Madman

Stalk

Mana Cost increased from 60 to 70.
State duration reduced from 4 seconds to 3.5 seconds.

Barrel Roll

Can no longer be cast while Immobilized.
Magic Damage reduced from 100/165/230/295 to 100/160/220/280.

Gash

Bonus damage per stack reduced from 6/7/8/9% to 5/6/7/8%.

Nitro

Strength growth per level increased from 1.5 to 2.0.
Base Agility increased from 22 to 25.

Ballistic

No longer has a cooldown.

Blast Off

Mana Cost reduced from 110/120/130/140 to 90/100/110/120.

Three’s a Crowd

While active, Nitro now gains 50% Evasion if there is an enemy within 300 radius of her.

Overdrive

Sight duration on the target now lasts for the full duration.
Damage penalty against the main target on autoattacks while active reduced from 65/55/45% to 60/50/40%.
Cooldown reduced from 90/75/60 seconds to 70/60/50 seconds.

Oogie

Kindled Fury

Cooldown reduced from 8 seconds to 7 seconds.

Ophelia

Ophelia’s Judgment

Magic Damage changed from 80/160/240/320 to 90/160/230/300.

Pollywog Priest

Morph

Mana Cost reduced from 90/125/160/195 to 90/120/150/180.

Voodoo Wards

Mana Cost reduced from 200/350/500 to 150/275/400.

Predator

Stone Hide

Cooldown increased from 14 seconds to 16 seconds.
Duration reduced from 4/5/6/7 seconds to 3.75/4.5/5.25/6 seconds.

Ancestral Assault

Percentage of SuperiorMagic Damage dealt based on the target’s Attack Damage increased from 60% to 60/67.5/75%.

Salomon

Wish for Power

Cooldown reduced from 20 seconds to 15 seconds.

Avenging Leap

Cooldown reduced from 20 seconds to 15 seconds.

Shadowblade

Gargantuan’s Blast

No longer receives a 20% Damage Penalty in this form.
Base Attack Time increased from 1.7 to 2 while in this form.
Movement Speed Slow applied to self in this form has been removed.
Armor and Magic Armor bonuses reduced from 1/2/3/4 to 0.75/1.5/2.25/3.

Feint’s Siphon

No longer amplifies incoming damage to Shadowblade.

Soul’s Sight

Bonus Intelligence in this form increased from 4/8/12/16 to 5/10/15/20.

Tempest

Agility growth per level increased from 1 to 1.6.

Elemental

Mana Cost reduced from 180 to 150.
Cooldown reduced from 35 seconds to 30 seconds.
Tempest has been underperforming for a significantly long time. These buffs should help him out in the jungle. In particular, Tempest can spawn more Elementals by using one of his own Elementals if needed at a moment’s notice!

Valkyrie

Call of the Valkyrie

Mana Cost increased from 80/90/100/110 to 80/100/120/140.

Warchief

Spirit Walk

Duration increased from 3 seconds to 3.5 seconds.
Now has a 0.1 second delay before it can be activated again.
This particular change is intended to fix a bad packet error bug experienced by a small subset of players when re-activating Spirit Walk too quickly (i.e. a bug we cannot willingly replicate).

Witch Slayer

Miniaturization

Mana Cost reduced from 110/140/170/200 to 90/120/150/180.

= Items =

Arcane Bomb

Illusions can now only receive a maximum of 80% of their Max Health as damage from Arcane Bomb.

Astrolabe

Recipe Cost increased from 510 Gold to 710 Gold.
Total Cost increased from 1550 Gold to 1750 Gold.

Grave Locket

No longer requires a Guardian Ring in its recipe components list.
No longer grants +2 Armor.
Recipe Cost increased from 25 Gold to 200 Gold.
Total Cost remains unchanged at 800 Gold.
These changes also fix a bug in the item shop where the recipe icon does not show up as a component.

Harkon’s Blade

Magic Armor reduction lowered from 5 to 4.

Mana Potion

State duration increased from 15 seconds to 20 seconds.
Bonus Mana Regeneration while active reduced from 6.67 to 6.25.
Total Mana restored over the state duration increased from 100 to 125.

Post Haste

Recipe Cost reduced from 1900 Gold to 1800 Gold.
Total Cost remains unchanged (due to the Striders change listed later on).

Restoration Stone

Mana Cost increased from 300 to 375.

Spellshards

Recipe Cost reduced from 825 Gold to 725 Gold.
Total Cost reduced from 2150/2975/3800 Gold to 2050/2775/3500 Gold.

Striders

Recipe Cost increased from 100 Gold to 200 Gold.
Total Cost increased from 600 Gold to 700 Gold.

== Matchmaking Maps & Modes ==

Champions of Newerth (CoN)

Map: Forests of Caldavar (“New” for NAEU/International region, “Old” for SEA region)
Mode: Ranked Pick

Mid Wars

Hero Ban
Single Draft

== Bug Fixes & Optimizations ==

= Forests of Caldavar (“New”) =

Removed some excessive & duplicate trees.
Lingering outdated tree models on some trees were updated to the new tree models.
Odd blocker locations have been adjusted for the new camps.
Fixed a few texture seams.
Fixed some more unintended cliffwalking spots.
Legion Kongor now properly changes its model to Plushie Kongor if 3 or more Plushie/Misfit heroes are in the game.

= Mid Wars =

Fixed an unintended cliffwalking spot.

= Heroes =

Engineer

The Keg now properly affects Siege creeps.
Spider Mines will no longer trigger on Magic Immune targets when determining what to chase.
This does not apply if the target gains Magic Immunity after Spider Mines starts travelling.

Geomancer

The visual expanding ring effects of Geo Stalk are no longer shown to the enemy team.

Goldenveil

Plunge can no longer be activated while immobilized.

Hammerstorm

Tin Hammerstorm’s Galvanize now has its proper cast visual effects & cast sounds.

Hellbringer

ElementBringer’s fire and ice variants of Malphas will now properly have their leash range behaviour (relative to Hellbringer’s location) applied when attacking towers.

Madman

Berserk (when boosted by Staff of the Master) no longer refreshes its own cooldown when Madman dies & Berserk is at level 2 or 3.

Martyr

Sol’s Conviction now properly displays a cast range indicator (if boosted by Staff of the Master).

Master of Arms

Mistress of Arms (URSA avatar) now spawns its URSA Corps bear companion pet properly if you own the Uschi Kane URSA avatar and the Ravus Artillery avatar.

Nitro

Tesla Cannon Nitro’s model now displays properly in the hero pick screen.
Nitro is now also categorized as a Ganker in the hero roles section (in addition to being a Carry).
Can no longer teleport to Mauser via Post Haste (since Nitro’s rework).

Silhouette

Shadow’s “Like a Ninja” swap subability now displays charges on the ability icon. These charges represent the cast time equal to (seconds/100).
Tree Grapple no longer blocks neutral camps from respawning.

= Items =

Bottle

Owner now receives the Bottle state for 3 seconds if picking up a Refreshment Rune (via right-clicking on it) while having a full Bottle (with or without a rune in it currently).

Icebrand (and Frostburn, Frozen Light, Dawnbringer and Frostwolf’s Skull)

Melee effect will now be prioritized over the Ranged effect on the slow state if different sources apply the state.

Icon of the Goddess

Can no longer be dropped if you have taken damage within the last 8 seconds (prevents the player from losing charges on the ability in near-death situations).
Now grants the appropriate amount of bonus Max Health and Max Mana at 25 charges.
Now sets the appropriate bonus Max Health & Max Mana based on charges when picking it up from the ground.

Puzzlebox

Tooltip has been slightly shortened so its tooltip box does not go past the top of the screen.

Spyglass

Can now be moved to a consumables slot in your inventory (if the player wants to do so - however, this item should be manually used by the player as soon as possible for its original purpose).
Can no longer be dropped or shared to other units (to prevent it from taking up space in an ally hero’s inventory without them being able to get rid of it).
You can still remove it from your inventory without using the item by selling it for 0 Gold, if you wish to do so.

Toxin Claws

Heroes affected by Toxin Claw’s DoT state are no longer deniable (based on Toxin Claw’s state alone), as Toxin Claws is considered direct Health removal.
Melee effect will now be prioritized over the Ranged effect on the state if different sources apply the state.