4.9.0

Version 4.9.0 - 1 December 2020

== New Content ==

New Animated & Static Wallpaper for the Login Screen: Adrenaline

New “Login Animation” tickbox option available on the Login Screen in the bottom-left corner (ticked by default).

This change allows the user the choice of seeing an HD image or a video animation on the Login Screen.
This option requires the HoN Client to be restarted to take effect.

New Loading Screens have been implemented into the game based on some fan art!

Forests of Caldavar: “Forsaken Archer - Before the War”, by Nettocap: https://i.imgur.com/L6Yhisy.jpg
Mid Wars: Popcorn Pearl, by Shimaya` https://drive.google.com/file/d/12j6nOE2N7DRKlWBmvUMvDoK3P5UkMaHK/view
Mid Wars: Calamity, by `Mazda: https://i.imgur.com/WLFEa5p.png

New Bombardier Avatar: Santa Bombardier

Time to rain down those Ho Ho Ho’s with Presents! ‘Tis the Seaon to be Jolly and what better way to do it than to show off your gifts with Santa Bombadier!
Credits to Veldt for the original concept & base art asset files from 2011: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2nPmxGbwHI&ab_channel=Veldt

New Artillery Avatar: Demon Hunter Artillery

For there to be no evil, you must seek evil - and destroy it! Demon Hunter Artillery enters the fray to LRM those pesky demons away!

New Base Avatar Updates

The following avatars have had their models and icons updated to their high-definition (HD) variants from the legacy HoN China Client:
Empath
Rhapsody
Solstice (night form model only)
These amazing base avatars will be available for everybody to use!

== HoNmas (Christmas) Updates ==

= Community Events =

Heroes of Newerth celebrates its 10th HoNmas with its players!

Note that all of the listed community events below are for the NAEU/International Client only. Other regional clients may have their own events running.
Earn prizes by logging in & playing HoN!
Participate in community events on our official forums with us to celebrate this special milestone in history! https://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/
HoNmas events will take place from December 1, 2020 (8am EST) to January 10, 2021 (11:59am EST).
Players will also be able to Gift other players items from the HoN Store during this event period!
Limit of 5 Gifts sent from an account.
More information can be found on our official forums and on our official landing page: https://www.heroesofnewerth.com/honmas-2020
Further updates will also be shown in-game via the Message of the Day (MotD) panels.

= Pricing Changes =

The following changes apply only for the NAEU/International Client only (other regional clients have their own pricing set):

Enjoy the holidays with avatar sales!
All avatars have received a permanent 10-30% Gold Coin price reduction.

= Cosmetic Updates =

The in-game Heads-Up Display (HUD) has been winterized in the spirit of Christmas! Enjoy the holidays in 2020 in Newerth!
The Forests of Caldavar (“New”) and Mid Wars maps have also been winterized with snow, glaciers, festive decorations and presents!
Thank you to you all for helping us with this feat!
Christmas-themed music tracks & songs have returned to Newerth!
Each of the above cosmetic updates are scheduled to stay in Newerth for Patches 4.9.0 and 4.9.1.
All Christmas-themed avatars are now available to be purchased!
Kongor also dressed up in the spirit of HoNmas!
Unfortunately, Hellbourne Kongor on the “New” Forests of Caldavar Map is too cranky to do that - only the Legion Kongor has changed his outfit!
Runes have also been updated to their Christmas variants!

== Design ==

= Hero Rework - Adrenaline =

Adrenaline has been reworked to have a completely new niche, specializing in catching heroes with high mobility.
Death’s Halo is the crux of the rework, essentially being changed to act as an “Arena” skill. This skill forces all units to essentially be confined within a space for a duration, essentially locking down a teamfight to take place in an area.
As a result, Adrenaline also acts as a true counter to heroes with escape abilities (or the recipient of mobility sources like Rally’s Compel or Tablet of Command) by forcing them to stay within Death’s Halo.
Adrenaline also has a new playstyle that favours engaging multiple heroes at once, while aiming to catch and trap as many heroes as possible to prevent their escape & give his team an advantage.
In the process, Adrenaline lost his key frustration factors when his opponents were playing against him. These frustration factors include (but are not limited to): True Damage % based on Max Health with no actual counterplay, having too much uptime on his lane harass, and having way too many dashes available at once, gated only by Mana Cost rather than Mana Cost and cooldown.
Because of all these changes, Adrenaline’s “energy” mechanic has been removed from the game. It allowed Adrenaline to have infinite harass in the laning phase & his skills had to be much weaker to compensate for that, and was overall too difficult to properly balance for the scope of the entire game. The “energy” mechanic just does not have a place in HoN where Health Sustain sources are costly to obtain in the laning phase.

Adrenaline (Reworked)

Attack Range changed from 450 to 150.
Now considered a Melee hero.
Movement Speed increased from 290 to 310.
Base Strength increased from 19 to 20.
Strength growth per level increased from 1.9 to 2.
Agility growth per level reduced from 2.5 to 2.4.
Base Intelligence increased from 10 to 18.
Intelligence growth per level increased from 1 to 1.5.
Model size increased by approximately 30%.

Ability 1: Shard Blast (Reworked)

Range: 800
Mana Cost: 80/90/100/110
Touch Radius: 90 (110 on tooltip for cast range indicator accuracy)
Cooldown: 4 seconds
Target a direction to throw a fast piercing Shard, dealing Magic Damage equal to 80/115/150/185+ 20/30/40/50% of your Agility to enemy units hit (0.75x damage to non-hero units).
The Shard applies a base 15% Movement Speed Slow that lasts 2 seconds. Each Shard increases the slow by 5%, stacking up to 1/2/3/4 times.
If the Shard hits 2 or more enemy heroes, the cooldown is reduced to 0.6 seconds and 60% of the Mana Cost is refunded.
Reduces the cooldown of Rush by 1.5 seconds for each enemy hero hit.

Ability 2: Rush (Reworked)

Range: 700
Mana Cost: 70
Cooldown: 14/13/12/11 seconds

Passive:

Applies 4 Dread Stacks with autoattacks and 5/6/7/8 Dread Stacks from Shard Blast when hitting an enemy unit. Dread Stacks last 6 seconds and refresh on hit.
Max of 12/16/20/24 Dread Stacks applied on an enemy unit.

Active:

Target a location to charge towards it, destroying trees and consuming all Dread Stacks from enemies you pass through and dealing Magic Damage equal to (20 + 10 Magic Damage per Dread Stack consumed).
Adrenaline gains 16/24/32/40% Movement Speed for 3 seconds upon dashing through an enemy hero.

Ability 3: Ember Shard (Reworked)

Mana Cost: 70/80/90/100
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Activate to empower your next attack within 4 seconds with your Ember Shard, cleaving for 100% of your Attack Damage in a 250/300/350/400 radius, and Restrains + tethers affected enemy heroes for the next 1.8/2.2/2.6/3 seconds.
If the distance between a tethered enemy hero and Adrenaline exceeds 750 units, the hero is pulled to Adrenaline. The enemy hero is Stunned & Restrained while being pulled towards Adrenaline, then Restrained for 1 second afterwards.
Max pull distance of 1000 units.

Ability 4: Death’s Halo (Reworked)

Mana Cost: 100/150/200
Cooldown: 100/90/80 seconds
Radius: 750
Activate to spawn Death’s Halo around Adrenaline for 5/6/7 seconds, surrounding the area with shard walls.
All units caught within Death’s Halo cannot escape its area (including teleportation or “blink” skills of any kind).
Units who do end up outside of Death’s Halo will be forcefully teleported to a point back inside Death’s Halo within half of this ability’s radius.
While active, Adrenaline gains 100% Slow Resistance, 100% Movement Speed, and 6/8/10 Agility and 1 Magic Armor per real hero caught (2x for enemy heroes).
Adrenaline can cancel Death’s Halo prematurely 2 seconds after it is cast.
Death’s Halo is destroyed if Adrenaline dies.
Duration of Death’s Halo is reduced by 1 second every time Adrenaline receives cumulative damage equal to 20% of his Max Health.

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

Blacksmith

Chaotic Flames

Staff of the Master effect changes (to pre-existing):
Mana Cost changed from 60% of your current Mana to 33% of your Max Mana.
Cooldown increased from 8 seconds to 30 seconds.
Blacksmith is receiving numerous buffs (mentioned later in the patch notes), so the boosted Chaotic Flames ability (Risky Cast) had to be more limited in its usage, as it was used as a “free” second proc of Fireball most of the time with generally unlimited availability.

Bramble

Chomp!

Staff of the Master effect addition (to pre-existing):
Cooldown reduced to 3 seconds.

Dampeer

Consume

Staff of the Master effect (to pre-existing):
Essence loss on death reduced from 4 to 3.

Electrician

Electric Shield

Staff of the Master effect addition (new):
Electic Shield is now a toggle.
If Electrician’s Mana reaches 0, the damage aura effect from Electric Shield stays active.

Cleansing Shock

Staff of the Master effect (new):
Mana Cost reduced to 0.
Also spawns an ally area instance of Cleansing Shock when targeting an enemy (and an enemy instance of Cleansing Shock when targeting an ally).
Effect radius around the target increased to 700.

Engineer

Energy Field

Staff of the Master effect addition (new):
Energy Field can now be thrown up to 800 units away from Engineer.
Can still be double-activated to cast at your current position instead.
Energy Field now procs its effects on affected enemy units immediately upon spawning.
Now also deals 1.5% of the enemy hero’s Max Health per second as Magic Damage.
Credits to ozilla for his suggestion on the official Heroes of Newerth forums!

Pyromancer

Blazing Strike

Staff of the Master effect change (to pre-existing):
Magic Damage increased from 650/875/1150 to 750/1000/1250.

Rhapsody

Protective Melody

Staff of the Master effect change (to pre-existing):
Rhapsody can now also attack and use abilities/items as usual during Protective Melody (in addition to allowing movement) without interrupting its effects.
Stuns and Silences on Rhapsody will still interrupt Protective Melody and cancel it.

Witch Slayer

Silver Bullet

Staff of the Master effect change (to pre-existing):
Magic Damage increased from 600/800/1025 to 750/925/1100.

= Captain’s Pick =

The lobby host can now manually designate a team to get the First Ban before the game starts.
Number of Rounds in the first Banning Phase increased from 2 to 3.
Total number of Hero Bans in the first Banning Phase increased from 4 to 6.
Hero Pick alternation method changed.
Current method: 1-1-1-1-1-1 (total of 6 picks, 3 per team) for the first Hero Pick Phase, then 1-1-1-1 (total of 4 picks, 2 per team) for the second Hero Pick Phase.
New method: 1-2-2 (total of 5 hero picks, 3 for the team that has First Ban and 2 for the other team) for the first Hero Pick Phase, then 2-2-1 (total of 5 picks, 3 for the team did not have First Ban and 2 for the other team) for the second Hero Pick Phase.
Base time per Hero Pick Phase increased from 30 seconds to 35 seconds.
Second Banning Phase now begins with the team that did not have First Ban at the start of the game.
These changes should reduce the advantages of the team that has the first hero pick and gives the team that goes second some opportunity to counter pick in the drafting phase of the game.
Overall, these changes allow for increased hero pick diversity in competitive tournaments!

= General =

Towers: Bonus Attack Damage dealt to heroes changed from 20 to 20 + (1 per game minute elapsed).
Heal Output increase mechanic now functions properly with Lifesteal.
Examples of Heal Output increase mechanics: Sacrificial Stone, Rhapsody’s new Arcane Hymn effects.

= Kongor =

Now has a base 30% Slow Resistance.
Enrage state: now also grants Kongor +30% Slow Resistance.
These changes only apply for the Legion & Hellbourne Kongors on the Forests of Caldavar (“New”) map.
Bonus Siege Damage from the 2x Kongor Kill state now scales with time:
Grows linearly from 20 minutes to 45 minutes.
Minimum of 20% bonus Siege Damage, maximum of 60% bonus Siege Damage.

= Mid Wars =

Hellbourne ramp that is closest to the Merrick’s Rune spawn point has been adjusted to more closely resemble the angle that its Legion-side analog faces Merrick’s Rune.
Merrick’s Rune can no longer be attacked in Mid Wars.
Main Base Structure’s Health Regeneration per second increased from 20 to 30 (when not damaged by an enemy within the last 10 seconds).

= Heroes =

Aluna

Emerald Lightning

Attack Speed steal reduced from 50 to 20/30/40/50.
The Attack Speed steal with Emerald Red’s effect remains unchanged.

Arachna

Webbed Shot

Magic Damage per second increased from 8/16/24/32 to 10/20/30/40.

Precision

No longer grants True Strike to allies.
This change should help Arachna be a slightly better lane bully, without bringing back all of the frustration factors associated with the hero.
Precision’s aura effect also overloaded the ability with utility. This effect is now transferred to Flint Beastwood’s Dead Eye instead.

Artillery

LRM

No longer deals reduced damage to non-hero units.
Artillery is now Sighted for 1 second if LRM hits an enemy player-controlled unit.

Special Ammunition

Bonus Cast Range on abilities reduced from 200/400/600/800 to 150/300/450/600.
Movement Speed Slow applied by abilities changed from 15% to 13/16/19/22%.
Artillery’s premise for being a long range hero has been one of the main causes of the frustration in playing against the hero.
Artillery was buffed in certain areas, while simultaneously reducing his max spell Cast Range values slightly until there is more time to properly address his hero design more thoroughly.

Blacksmith

Flaming Hammer

Duration changed from 7.5 seconds to 5/6/7/8 seconds.
Magic Damage per second rescaled from 10/20/30/40 to 20/25/30/35.
Overall Magic Damage dealt (before factoring in the negative Magic Armor from this ability) changed from 75/150/225/300 to 100/150/210/280.

Frenzy

Now grants an additional 10% Movement Speed for self.
Now grants an additional 10/15/20/25 Attack Speed for self.

Chaotic Flames

Chance for a strict 1x Multicast (i.e. no Multicast) reduced from 75/60/40% to 70/45/30%.
Chance for a strict 2x Multicast increased from 25/20/30% to 30/35/35%.
Chance for a strict 3x Multicast increased from 0/20/15% to 0/20/20%.
Chance for a strict 4x Multicast remains unchanged at 0/0/15%.
Overall long-term average Multicast multiplier increased from 2.05x to 2.2x.
For Level 3 Chaotic Flames, average damage distribution for 1x/2x/3x/4x changed from approximately 20/29/22/29% to 14/32/27/27%, respectively.
These changes to Blacksmith should considerably bolster his early game performance, giving him more early game reliability, roaming power and laning power (and thus, increasing his competitive viability).
Additionally, these changes even open up other laning options and more dynamic roles for Blacksmith depending on how the game is going.
The changes to Chaotic Flames resulted in a more normalized damage distribution while keeping the chance mechanic/flavour on Blacksmith, and also reduced the likelyhood of getting only a 1x Multicast when Chaotic Flames is at max level.
Credits to MacroHard for assistance with the mathematics!

Bramble

Spore Breath

Now heals Bramble for 0.5x the Magic Damage dealt to an enemy hero.
Overhealing will grant Bramble a Shield state for 5 seconds. Max Shield Health of 400. Shield states are shared between abilities.

Chomp!

Cooldown reduced from 12/10/8/6 seconds to 11/9/7/5 seconds.
Now heals Bramble for 0.5x the bonus Magic Damage dealt by this ability.
Overhealing will grant Bramble a shield state for 5 seconds. Max Shield Health of 400. Shield states are shared between abilities.
These changes should allow Bramble to remain more durable in the front lines and allow Ensnaring Shrubbery to be used on allies (instead of herself) more frequently.

Calamity

Dragon’s Path

Mana Cost increased from 40 to 45/50/55/60.

Dampeer

Consume

Upon death, Essence count now goes to minimum of 1 if he has more than 1 Essence Count.
Dampeer still loses his Essence if he only had 1 Essence before death.

Demented Shaman

Entangle

Base Movement Speed Slow increased from 40% to 55%.
Movement Speed Slow rescaled from 40/60/80/100% to 55/70/85/100%.
Stun duration rescaled from 0/0.4/0.8/1.2 seconds to 0.3/0.6/0.9/1.2 seconds.

Unbreakable

Mana Cost reduced from 150 to 100/110/120/130.
These changes help Demented Shaman a little bit more when played as a primary support.

Draconis

Draconic Defense

Damage Reduction for Draconis reduced from 15/30/45/60% to 15/20/25/30%.
Damage Reduction for ally buildings increased from 15/30/45/60% to 30/40/50/60%.

Drunken Master

Stagger

Movement Speed bonus increased from 5/10/15/20 to 15/20/25/30.

Drink

Cooldown reduction of Lunge and Stagger increased from 0.25 seconds to 0.5 seconds per 0.25 seconds channeled.
Max cooldown reduction for Lunge and Stagger increased from 2 seconds to 4 seconds (if the skill was channeled for the full duration).
Mana Cost reduced from 50 to 20.
Healing from the natural expiration of a Drunk Charge increased from 5 Health to 6 Health.
Extra Movement Speed Slow granted to Lunge increased from 20% to 30%.
Extra Movement Speed granted to Stagger increased from 30 to 50.
Now gains 10 Drunk Charges upon obtaining a Kill or an Assist on a real enemy hero.
Rather than addressing Drunken Master’s other weaknesses, Drunken Master’s Drink usage was made considerably more powerful so that he has access to Lunge & Stagger even earlier than before if he chooses to channel Drink mid-combat.

Empath

Illusory Veil

Duration increased from 3 seconds to 3/3.4/3.8/4.2 seconds.
Magic Damage per second reduced from 30/45/60/75 to 30/40/50/60.

Synergy

Percentage-based Health Regeneration increased from 0.05/0.1/0.15/0.2% to 0.1/0.2/0.3/0.4% of your Max Health per second.

Engineer

Base Strength reduced from 22 to 20.

The Keg

Magic Damage changed from 110/160/205/240 to 90/150/210/270.

Steam Turret

Movement Speed Slow per charge changed from 3.5% to 2.5/3/3.5/4%.
Max Movement Speed Slow changed from 35% to 25/30/35/40%.
Push distance per bullet hit increased from 10/15/20/25 to 15/25/35/45.
Magic Damage per bullet changed from 10/18/26/34 to 14/18/22/26.
Max Potential Damage changed from 100/180/260/340 to 140/180/220/260 (though the realistic damage from this ability is pitiful due to how the mechanics work).
In practical situations, heroes only get hit by maybe 6-12 bullets, not 50. Steam Turret was never really used for its damage anyway and was more used for its zoning properties.
Furthermore, the damage has been shifted more towards The Keg as it is a skillshot that should yield high rewards, while Steam Turret should remain more focused as a utility spell.
In fact, Steam Turret’s push effect is now much more formidable compared to before & has gained a big overall net buff in terms of utility.

Spider Mines

Spider Mines now automatically detonate upon their initial placement if there is at least 1 enemy unit within its blast radius, dealing 0.75x Magic Damage when detonated in this manner.
Spider Mines can now only be detonated manually once they have successfully been planted.
Cooldown reduced from 8 seconds to 6.5 seconds.
Max number of Spider Mines placed on the map at once reduced from 6 to 3/3/4/5.
No longer has a Spider Mine stacking limit mechanic.
The Magic Damage on Spider Mines has been reduced when used as an on-demand nuke so that the ability is less of a stellar reliable ranged nuke compared to other support heroes.
Engineer had way more damage than other support heroes prior to these changes (he is secretly a hero with 3 nukes), so these changes put him on a more even power level relative to other support heroes, while frontloading more of the Magic Damage on The Keg (a skillshot) instead.
The overall changes here should let Engineer have a smoother distribution of Magic Damage between his abilities & over time, rather than having him get all the meaningful Magic Damage in a reliable manner only through Spider Mines.
With the changes to the max number of Spider Mines placed at once, there is no need for a stack limit mechanic any longer. By the time Engineer maxes out Spider Mines, there is a small time window where 5 Spider Mines can 1-shot an enemy hero, but this still needs considerable setup time & takes away from potential scouting uses for said time period. Once this short time period passes by, Engineer should use Spider Mines as a scouting tool and an on-demand nuke when it comes down to practical usage.
The changes to the detonate mechanic removes a great discrepancy between lower & mid skill level brackets vs. high skill brackets in terms of hero performance statistics, so it should be much easier to appropriately balance Engineer for all skill brackets from this time onward.
Overall, Engineer is now more in line with the damage progression of a ganker/nuker, while having support-like utility once he gets access to Energy Field and higher levels of Steam Turret.

Flint Beastwood

Hollowpoint Shells

Bonus Physical Damage increased from 15/30/45/60 to 20/40/60/80.

Dead Eye

Now grants allies within 900 radius a 25/50/75/100% chance to gain True Strike.
Level 4 of the ability is considered to grant True Strike.
The True Strike aura mechanic was taken from Arachna’s Precision to give Flint Beastwood a little bit more of a reason to be picked in games.
Flint Beastwood also got a small power boost on Hollowpoint Shells to keep up with the power level of today’s meta.

Gauntlet

Gauntlet Blast

Target scheme changed from Physical to SuperiorMagic.

Geomancer

Earth’s Grasp

Magic Damage per proc increased from 30/35/40/45 to 35/40/45/50.

Geo Stalk

Radius increased from 1200/1500/1800/2100 to 1200/1800/2400/3000.
Slight number tweaks to increase Geomancer’s niche, while not making him too obnoxious to deal with in the laning phase.

Glacius

Intelligence gain per level increased from 2.9 to 3.0.

Tundra Blast

Magic Damage changed from 110/150/180/210 to 110/170/190/210.

Ice Imprisonment

Cast Range increased from 500 to 550.
Mana Cost increased from 120/130/140/150 to 130/140/150/160.
Magic Damage per second increased from 70 to 90.
Max Magic Damage dealt by this ability increased from 105/140/175/210 to 135/180/225/270.
Glacius’ early game is now even more powerful, at the cost of slightly increased mana consumption.
The hero has basic core fundamentals, mechanics and function, and competitively it is difficult to find reasons to pick him over other heroes.
The increased early game viability coupled with the Chilling Presence changes in the previous patch should make him competitively viable.

Grinex

Rift Stalk

Armor debuff value changed from -0.8 Armor to -0.4 Armor.

Klanx

B.A.N.G.

Enemies facing the flashbang now also receive a 15/20/25/30% Miss Chance for the duration.
State duration reduced from 3 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
Tapering Movement Speed now tapers off a bit more slowly to compensate for the reduced slow duration.
This minor change gives Klanx a little bit more relevance & niche as a hero pick.

Lord Salforis

Life Tap

Lifesteal reduced from 70/80/90/100% to 55/70/85/100%.
This small change should make Lord Salforis slightly less snowbally & slightly easier to deal with in the laning phase.

Magebane

Mana Combustion

Base Mana Burn value increased from 6/12/18/24 to 15/20/25/30.
A small buff to make Magebane more relevant during the laning phase.

Madman

Stalk

Mana Cost reduced from 70 to 60.

Barrel Roll

Magic Damage increased from 100/160/220/280 to 100/165/230/295.
Madman was overnerfed in the previous patches. These changes should rebolster his early game while still toning down his late game.

Monarch

Crippling Pollen

Projectile speed increased from 1000 to 1400 units per second.
Crippling Pollen was simply way too slow in today’s meta. It is no longer as easily disjointable compared to before after receiving this change.

Monkey King

Illusive Dash

The second dash will no longer automatically trigger when the timer expires naturally.

Vault

Projectile speed for the initial jump on Vault (before impacting the enemy ) increased from 1000 to 1200.
Projectile lifetime (before Monkey King lands, after Vaulting off the enemy) reduced from 0.6 seconds to 0.4 seconds.
These changes should allow Monkey King to minimize unwanted interactions & allow him to land slightly faster to enable him to autoattack foes sooner.

Moraxus

More Axes

Max charges increased from 1/2/3/4 to 2/3/4/5.
Cooldown reduced from 1.5 seconds to 1.25 seconds.
Moraxus is pretty dependent on doing well in his lane to maintain relevance throughout the game. Having even more axes available to him should help him maintain his relevance in the early/mid game.

Nitro

Ballistic

Damage reduced from 10/16/22/28 to 6/12/18/24.
Mana Cost increased from 10 to 15.

Blast Off

Mana Cost increased from 90/100/110/120 to 100/110/120/130.
Nitro was a little bit too powerful when soloing the middle lane. These changes should make laning against her a little more bearable.

Oogie

Kindled Fury

Cooldown increased from 7.5 seconds to 8 seconds.

Pebbles

Base Intelligence reduced from 18 to 16.

Stalagmites

Cooldown increased from 20/18/16/14 seconds to 21/19/17/15 seconds.

Chuck

Cooldown increased from 10 seconds to 14/13/12/11 seconds.
Pebbles now regains a bit of his legacy laning phase weakness of having a limited mana pool. He can still cast both Stalagmites and Chuck without boosting his Mana Pool in the laning phase, but his mana pool will be nearly empty if he does this.
Chuck’s cooldown has also been slightly increased to slightly reduce the frequency of harassing his lane opponent with just Chuck.

Prophet

Invigorate

Heal increased from 75/100/125/150 to 80/120/140/160.

Shared Fate

Cooldown reduced from 120/105/90 seconds to 90/80/70 seconds.
These changes should help Prophet more when played as a primary support hero.

Puppet Master

Puppeteer’s Hold

Mana Cost reduced from 110/130/150/170 to 100/115/130/145.

Puppet Show

Mana Cost reduced from 125/140/155/170 to 115/130/145/160.

Whiplash

Now also passively grants 10/20/30/40 Attack Speed.

Voodoo Puppet

Leash Range reduced from 1500 to 1000.
Voodoo Puppet’s Max Health reduced from 500/750/1000 to 500/700/900.
These changes make Puppet Master just a tad less burst-oriented, while increasing his overall damage output over time and improving the availability of his spells.

Pyromancer

Starting Attack Damage increased from 43-49 to 46-50.

Dragonfire

Magic Damage increased from 80/120/160/200 to 80/130/180/230.
Cooldown reduced from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.

Blazing Strike

Magic Damage increased from 450/650/850 to 450/725/1000.
Pyromancer has been underperforming ever since the game’s power level has been readjusted to be more reasonable. His scaling towards late-game and the availability of Dragonfire has been improved to help with this.

Enlightenment

Mana Cost to reposition his Spirit Shredder reduced from 50 to 25.
SuperiorMagic Damage per second dealt increased from 20/35/50/65/80% to 20/40/60/80/100% of an enemy hero’s Extra Autoattack Damage per Second (DPS).
Placement cooldown while Spirit Shredder is active reduced from 4 seconds to 4/3.5/3/2.5/2 seconds.
The increased damage change should amplify Qi’s niche against strong autoattacking heroes without affecting his performance too much against heroes that have less items.
The extra ease of repositioning the Spirit Shredder around will make Qi more flexible in Spirit Shredder usage and placement as well.

Rampage

Ability 4: The Chains that Bind (Reworked)

Range: 200
Mana Cost: 150/200/250
Cooldown: 100/85/70 seconds
Binds the target to Rampage for 2.5/3/3.5 seconds and drags the target behind Rampage as he moves.
The dragged target will take 25/35/45% of the distance they are dragged in Physical Damage.
If Rampage and the dragged target gets separated by more than 600 units, the chains are broken.
Rampage’s Greater Rhino lacked uniqueness and function when compared to other heroes.
By giving Rampage one of his iconic abilities back, he can once again controllably reposition a foe against their will.

Rhapsody

Attack Range increased from 550 to 600.

Disco Inferno

Enemies take 0.75x damage while they are moving on the Dance Floor (instead of taking no damage).
Allies heal for 1.25x more while they are moving on the Dance Floor (instead of receiving no healing).
Heal per second changed from 15/25/35/45 to 13/22/31/40.
Rhapsody now has the option of attaching Disco Inferno to herself by pressing the ability hotkey for Arcane Hymn (hotkey “E” by default).

Arcane Hymn

Now has 5 levels, with a base level of 1 (due to the Disco Inferno changes). At the base level, the ability will not do anything, but the active ability will be available if Disco Inferno is leveled.
Radius increased from 500 to 900.
Now also grants 15/20/25/30% increased Healing Output while affected by Arcane Hymn.
Elaboration of mechanics: for Rhapsody, since Arcane Hymn applies to Rhapsody all the time, Disco Inferno will heal for an increased amount from Arcane Hymn.
Another example: Jeraziah is affected by Arcane Hymn, and he casts Inner Light to heal an ally that is not affected by Arcane Hymn. Inner Light still gets its healing amplified, since the source of healing (Jeraziah) is affected by Arcane Hymn.
An example where the healing output increase does not apply: Jeraziah is not affected by Arcane Hymn, and casts Inner Light on another hero that is affected by Arcane Hymn. Inner Light will not have its healing amplified, since the source of healing (Jeraziah) is not affected by Arcane Hymn.
Rhapsody has been falling behind in the meta as other supports proved to be more versatile and reliable than her, so her abilities have been adjusted to compensate for that.
Disco Inferno has a new option that properly rewards movement with Rhapsody & heroes in general, should the player choose to use that option.
Note that Arcane Hymn’s aura radius will no longer match Protective Melody’s radius. You will have to have more spatial awareness to know when Protective Melody will affect an ally!

Sapphire

Unstable Shard

Shard Duration reduced from 10 seconds to 7 seconds.
Cooldown reduced from 20 seconds to 17 seconds.

Crystallize

Cast action time reduced from 1 second to 0.8 seconds.

Shadowblade

Base Strength, Agility and Intelligence increased from 18 to 25.
Strength, Agility and Intelligence growth per level reduced from 2.5 to 1.5.
Starting Attack Damage readjusted from 50-53 to 55-58.

Gargantuan’s Blast

Bonus Armor increased from 0.75/1.5/2.25/3 to 3/6/9/12.
Bonus Magic Armor increased from 0.75/1.5/2.25/3 to 1/2/3/4.
The bonus Armor and Magic Armor now only lasts for 3.5 seconds after entering Gargantuan Form (instead of lasting for the full duration of Gargantuan Form).
The bonus Strength still persists for the full duration of Gargantuan Form.

Feint’s Siphon

Now only steals Attack Damage when used against enemy player-controlled units.
Shadowblade had many frustration factors, and most of them stem from the long defensive bonuses from Gargantuan Form throughout the entire duration.
Buffing the Armor & Magic Armor bonus substantially while reducing the duration means that the player only gains the mass Armor/Magic Armor bonuses for a brief duration when using Gargantuan’s Blast to damage & slow enemies.
Feint’s Siphon no longer steals Attack Damage to avoid him speedfarming neutrals when he obtains a Runed Cleaver.
Ideally, Shadowblade should be a more true jack-of-all-trades hero, so his base stats have been substantially increased to bolster his early game performance, at the cost of his scaling (and thus, his carry capability) in the mid/late game.
Shadowblade should now perform much better as a semi-carry jack-of-all-trades hero, even in the laning phase (where his starting Attack Damage has been considerably increased, particularly in Soul’s Sight form). Because of this change, he can be played as a support hero too!

Shellshock

Rolling Thunder

Now allows you to cancel the roll by activating the ability again (without the need to have Staff of the Master).
Allies can no longer enter Rolling Thunder if they are Stunned or Rooted.
They can still enter Rolling Thunder if they are Restrained though!

Skrap

Summon Vorax

Now gains 2 Attack Damage, 0.3 Armor and 20 Max Health per game minute elapsed when spawned.
These changes should help Vorax maintain relevance throughout the game as time passes by.

Wildsoul

Bear Form

Now has a cooldown of 1 second once Wildsoul finishes morphing into Bear Form (reverting forms does not trigger the cooldown).
Now has a Mana Cost of 20.
These changes are not intended to be nerfs, but rather to implement a mechanism to deter players from endlessly spamming the visual/sound effects.

Witch Slayer

Graveyard

Magic Damage changed from 80/140/200/260 to 100/160/210/260.

Silver Bullet

Magic Damage increased from 500/650/850 to 650/750/850.
Cooldown changed from 105/80/55 seconds to 120/85/50 seconds.
Witch Slayer is now more differentiated from Pyromancer with a much higher early game damage on Silver Bullet (at the cost of an increased cooldown).
These changes also increase Witch Slayer’s power when played as a support hero to be more comparable to other supports, while still not taking away his niche option to solo the middle lane (depending on the matchup) for a quick Portal Key to control the game’s tempo.

Xemplar

Fractal Field

Now only triggers on illusions within 900 radius of Xemplar.

Wall of Mirrors

Magic Damage increased from 30/60/90/120 to 60/90/120/150.
Each subsequent dash from the same cast instance after the third dash deals 0.7x Damage of the previous dash.

Schism

For the first 5 seconds, the Schism illusions now only receive 66% of the damage they would normally receive (i.e. the same damage they would receive as if they were a regular hero).
Arcane Bomb is intended to counter illusion heroes, but Xemplar relies on his illusions quite a bit.
By making his Schism illusions less vulnerable to being killed right away, Xemplar should be able to output his damage more reliably before his Schism illusions die.

= Items =

New Item: Pegasus Boots

Buildup: Post Haste (2500) + Recipe (2000) = 4500 Gold Total
Has the same properties as Post Haste, with the following changes:
Allows the user to also teleport to real ally heroes.
Teleport target will not be disabled while the channel effect is happening.
The teleport effect still cancels if the target hero dies before the channel ends.
Base Movement Speed increased from 105 to 125.
Max out-of-combat movement speed reduced from 45 to 35.
This item is meant to be a luxury upgrade from Post Haste, allowing a hero to teleport to another ally hero for global ganks and pushes without relying on the presence of a creep wave or ally creep.

Armor of the Mad Mage (Reworked)

New buildup: Luminous Prism (1500) + Helm of the Victim (900) + Recipe (800) = 3200 Gold Total
Passive bonuses: 8 Armor, 5 Health Regeneration per second, 18 Intelligence
Passively applies -3 Magic Armor to enemies within 900 radius.
Active: activate to grant yourself 20 Armor that tapers off over 6 seconds.
Mana Cost: 75
Cooldown: 45 seconds
Armor of the Mad Mage got its price point reduced so that it is a more viable midgame item that amplifies Magic Damage for the team while being near the middle of the teamfight.
As a result, its benefits were also slightly nerfed from before (and also had its self-purge effect removed).
However, its new buildup makes it easier to obtain & also grants some viable early Armor & Health Regeneration sustain. It is also no longer considered an item that uses an Activation Modifier.

Support-based Items

Nome’s Wisdom

Magic Armor granted by the aura reduced from 3 to 2.
Armor granted by the aura reduced from 3 to 2.
Max Shield Health reduced from 500 to 300.
Shield duration reduced from 10 seconds to 7 seconds.
Adrenaline no longer receives a penalty for this item’s shield/heal mechanic (as the hero has been reworked such that it is unable to abuse this mechanic like before).
Nome’s Wisdom was granting a little too much value for its price point and enabled deathball compositions a little too much. The changes should make it less of an all-around good item, while ensuring that it still gives a substantial increase in Magic Armor for the team.

Ophelia’s Pact

Cost reduced from 100 Gold to 80 Gold.
Can now be purchased at the Observatory.
Can now be placed in a Consumable Slot.

Orb of Zamos & Grave Locket

State linger duration after getting out of range increased from 10 seconds to 12 seconds.

Ring of the Teacher

Now requires a 50 Gold recipe.
Total Cost increased from 500 Gold to 550 Gold.
Can no longer be disassembled.
As a result, the Total Cost of Lex Talionis, Abyssal Skull and Nome’s Wisdom have also increased by 50 Gold.

Stormspirit

No longer has Scarab in its buildup.
Mana Regeneration bonus reduced from 150% to 125%.
Now has Wind Whistle in its buildup instead.
Now has a 100 Gold Recipe.
Total Cost reduced from 2675 Gold to 2650 Gold.
Can no longer be disassembled.
Just a minor component change, since Stormspirit already grants increased Movement Speed.
Wind Whistle is now a viable early game item for support heroes to take if they plan on building Stormspirit!

Lightning Item Changes

Thunderclaw

Area Magic Damage on proc reduced from 90 to 85.

Hypercrown

Attack Speed increased from 80 to 90.
The Attack Speed for Hypercrown previously did not add up to the Attack Speed bonus granted by its parts (at the minimum). This has been corrected.
Recipe Cost increased from 800 Gold to 1000 Gold.
Total Cost increased from 5600 Gold to 5800 Gold.
Active ability can now only target ally heroes.
Farming items that actually have an upgrade should be expensive, as farming items are normally obtained for the purposes of farming & not to substantially increase your actual hero combat ability.
Furthermore, the active ability was used to accelerate farm in a split pushing manner, and was just doing too much. As a result, Thunderclaw and Hypercrown have received these minor (but important) changes so that their power and intention more closely match their Gold costs.

Lifesteal Item Changes

Elder Parasite

Now also passively grants +10 Attack Damage.
Passive Attack Speed bonus increased from 15 to 20.
Damage Amplification for damage received for the active state reduced from 15% to 12%.
Attack Speed bonus for the active state increased from 85 to 90.
Elder Parasite has been changed to be slightly more appealing to pick up as a midgame item that gives a burst of Attack Speed when required.

Whispering Helm

+10 Attack Damage bonus removed.
Whispering Helm is still way too good at enabling carries to stack easily.
As the +10 Attack Damage came out of nowhere & Whispering Helm does not need to be any better at bolstering the hero’s combat ability, it has been removed from the item.

Symbol of Rage

Cooldown increased from 35 seconds to 50 seconds.
Attack Damage bonus reduced from 20 to 10.
This change is propagated from Whispering Helm.

Icebrand Item Line Changes & Frostfield Plate Changes

Icebrand

Movement Speed Slow increased from 15% to 20% for Melee wielders.

Frostburn and Frozen Light

Movement Speed Slow increased from 25% to 30% for Melee wielders.

Dawnbringer

Movement Speed Slow increased from 35% to 40% for Melee wielders.

Frostwolf’s Skull

No longer passively applies an Attack Speed Slow to affected enemy units.
Active mechanics reworked: activating it once will spawn 2 Scouting Frost Wolves that seek out the nearest enemy heroes within radius, Sighting and Revealing them and applying a 20% Movement Speed Slow for 3 seconds.
Radius: 5000
Mana Cost: 25
Cooldown: 50 seconds
After activating it this way, can activate again within the next 50 seconds to send Dire Frost Wolves to impact nearby enemy player-controlled units, dealing 100 Magic Damage and applying a 50% Movement Speed Slow to enemies in radius for 4 seconds.
Radius: 800
Mana Cost: 0
Cooldown: 30 seconds if the net cooldown is less than 30 seconds once the Scouting Frost Wolves have been sent out.
Frostwolf’s Skull is now more differentiated from Frostfield Plate with a different active effect, as well as having a heavier focus on Movement Speed Slow.
Its scouting utility is a unique effect in the item pool, while still granting the same in-combat usage without directly tying it to the scouting part of the item.
Shoutout & thanks to Whyzozerious for the amazing visual effects on the Frost Wolves!

Frostfield Plate

Strength bonus reduced from 6 to 3.
Agility bonus reduced from 6 to 3.
Armor reduced from 15 to 14.
Attack Speed Slow Aura magnitude reduced from 20% to 10%.
Active state’s Movement Speed Slow reduced from 50% to 20%.
Active state now also applies a 30% Attack Speed Slow (stacking additively with the aura’s Attack Speed Slow).
Frostfield Plate is now much more focused on a heavy Attack Speed Slow on its active ability, at the cost of having less effective passive bonuses and a weaker Movement Speed Slow on the active state.
As a result, Frostfield Plate’s usage and purpose is now even more differentiated from Frostwolf’s Skull.

Lightbrand Item Line Changes

Lightbrand, Frozen Light, Searing Light, Dawnbringer, Grimoire of Power

Searing effect is now also applied by non-Returned, non-DoT Damage.

Lightbrand

Now also grants 6% non-DoT Magic Damage Lifesteal (2% against non-hero units).

Frozen Light and Searing Light

Now also grants 10% non-DoT Magic Damage Lifesteal (3% against non-hero units).

Dawnbringer

Now also grants 15% non-DoT Magic Damage Lifesteal (5% against non-hero units).
Searing effect’s Magic Damage per second per charge increased from 16 to 18.

Grimoire of Power

Recipe Cost reduced from 800 Gold to 700 Gold.
Total Cost reduced from 5100 Gold to 5000 Gold.
Magic Damage Lifesteal no longer applies on Magic DoT effects.
Non-DoT Magic Damage Lifesteal increased from 15% to 20% (7% against non-hero units).
Ravenor no longer receives a penalty for this item’s non-DoT Magic Damage Lifesteal.
Active effect completely reworked:
Activate to instantly dispel Debuffs and Stuns on self, and grant 100% Debuff and Stun Duration reduction for the next 1 second. Note that this will not protect you from continuous area effects (such as Chronos’ Chronofield) or blue-bordered states like Succubus’ Hold.
Grimoire of Power can be activated even while Stunned or Perplexed.
Cooldown: 70 seconds
Mana Cost: 100
Grimore of Power’s previous active effect (increased Magic Lifesteal) was too specific to heroes & it was hard to take advantage of that mechanic if you enter a battle at close to full HP & you need to use your important spells as soon as possible.
The item’s active effect has been completely reworked to be more suitable for heroes that want to ensure their important spells/item usage go off even if they are caught by surprise (so long as they are not bursted down before having a chance to react).
This new effect is powerful enough such that it is generally usable on all heroes, but will benefit heroes with key abilities & items more often. The duration is short enough such that there is counterplay.
Finally, the Lightbrand item line now only works on non-DoT Magic Damage sources. This is due to some effects (like Mock of Brilliance) synergizing too well with a cheap item like Lightbrand.

Ward Changes

Ward of Revelation

Reveal radius increased from 800 to 850.
The “clearvision” initial reveal radius has been increased from 400 to 425.

Ward of Sight

Vision radius increased from 1600 to 1700.
This change was partially done to address the issues with vision regarding the bottom rune.

Other Item Changes

Arcane Bomb

Damage mechanic against illusions changed from Direct Health Removal to True Damage.
This should not make a difference in most circumstances & primarily only makes a difference against Xemplar’s Schism illusions.

Barbed Armor

Returned Damage is now based on pre-mitigation damage (rather than post-mitigation damage).
Returned Damage reduced from 80% to 65% of the pre-mitigation damage received.

Barrier Idol

Component change in buildup: Major Totem (540 Gold) is now replaced with a Trinket of Restoration (350 Gold).
Recipe Cost increased from 1060 Gold to 1250 Gold.
Overall Cost remains the same at 3650 Gold.
As a result of the component changes, no longer grants +5 Strength, Agility or Intelligence.
Passive bonus Health Regeneration per second increased from 10 to 12.

Geometer’s Bane

Recipe Cost increased from 800 Gold to 900 Gold.
Total Cost increased from 5100 Gold to 5200 Gold.
Cooldown increased from 50 seconds to 60 seconds.

Health Potion, Mana Potion, Bottle, Rejuvenation Potion

Damage from sources that are non-boss, non-player controlled (NPC) neutral creeps (when not owned by a player) no longer dispel these effects while they are active.

Kuldra’s Sheepstick

If dispelled, the current duration of the Sheeped state is reduced by 80%, and the Sheeped state becomes unpurgeable for the remainder of its duration.

Spellshards

Recipe Cost reduced from 725 Gold to 675 Gold.
Total Cost reduced from 2050/2775/3500 to 2000/2675/3350.

== 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 ==

= General =

The “No Response from Server” bug in the International NAEU Client has been fixed (please post in our official Bug Report forums if this still occurs after the patch).
Old User Interface: login screen now has its auto-login tickbox functionality working properly.
Max Frames Per Second (FPS) is now set to 240 by default for all players.
Higher resolution options will now be populated in the Resolution dropdown menu in the Graphics Options section (if your computer supports them).

Forests of Caldavar (“New”)

Moved bottom rune spot slightly to the upper left so that other warding spots see the rune.
Moved Legion jungle high cliff ward spot ever so slightly closer to the rune such that it can see the new rune spot, while still only managing to see 2 Legion jungle camps.
Top-left tree area in the top lane has been fixed to allow heroes to move through the tree patch (similar analog to the bottom-right area).
Cliffwalking exploit spot has been fixed near the bottom-right Legion tower on the cliffs.

= Kongor =

Now properly drops Token of Life when killed by illusions or another player-controlled unit from the appropriate team (when all other appropriate conditions are considered valid for dropping this item).

= Neutral Camps =

Gadgets spawned by the following abilities will no longer block neutral camps from respawning:

Behemoth’s FIssure
Bubbles’ Kelp Field
Calamity’s Sunder’s Vault
Chipper’s Sawblade Showdown
Doctor Repulsor’s Magnetic Contraption
Ellonia’s Glacial Spike, Frigid Field and Absolute Zero
Engineer’s Steam Turret and Energy Field (only the fence area, not the center targetable gadget)
Forsaken Archer’s Piercing Arrows
Gladiator’s Call to Arms
Klanx’s B.A.N.G.
Kraken’s Release the Kraken
Lodestone’s Rocket Drill
Monkey King’s Wan Jin Slam
Moira’s Arcane Vortex
Myrmidon’s Weed Field
Night Hound’s Smoke Bomb
Nymphora’s Volatile Pod and Teleport
Pearl’s Preservation
Riftwalker’s Cascade Event and Wormhole
Shadowblade’s Soul’s Sight
Shellshock’s Sanctuary Stone
Sir Benzington’s Knightfall
Skrap’s Mousetrap
Tempest’s Elemental Void
Grave Locket’s gadget

= Heroes =

Accursed

Fire Shield state now has charges to represent Shield Health.

Amun-Ra

Ashes to Ashes no longer adjusts its charges when Amun-Ra receives negative Attack Damage.

Blitz

Blitzkrieg now properly gets blocked by Moraxus’ Arcane Shield when the projectile is in midair before Arcane Shield is activated.

Calamity

Sunder’s Vault side blockers now last the correct duration (they were lasting much longer than intended prior to the bugfix).

Electrician

Electric Shield state (the non-SotM boosted version) now has charges to represent Shield Health.

Kinesis

Stasis Smash no longer lifts allied player-controlled units.

Nymphora

Teleport event for Nymphora now occurs at the same time as the teleport event for her allies, which fixes a corner case bug where Nymphora can cancel the last frame of her Teleport to teleport allies but not herself.
Mass Teleport (when boosted by Staff of the Master) now properly spawns a level 4 instance of Volatile Pod (instead of spawning a Volatile Pod based on the level of Mass Teleport).

Master’s Legacy’s active can now properly target Qi.

Rampage

Stampede’s charge project impact distance has been slightly increased to ensure that the correct knockback direction occurs upon impact.

Revenant

Defile will no longer consume a charge if it hits an enemy Magic-Immune gadget or ward.

Salomon

Lane position has been updated to include a Jungle rating.

Valkyrie

Brunhild Valkyrie’s Javelin of Light projectile visuals will now be more distinguishable from its surroundings.

Warchief

Spirit Walk now properly plays the horn blowing animation on Warchief if used while standing still.

= Items =

Nome’s Wisdom

Fixed a rare bug where Nome’s Wisdom can generate a Shield when your Max Health is reduced on the same frame that your Mana is reduced.

Ophelia’s Pact

Now properly disabled on Moira’s Ephemeral Forge Mimic.
No longer interrupts your current unit’s command when consumed.