4.9.4

Version 4.9.4 - 26 October 2021 == New Content ==

New Draconis Avatar: Abyss Draco

Feast on your opponents’ despair with this undying Draconis avatar!
Credits to Narandea for the hero icon art!

== Design ==

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

Artesia

Essence Projection

Staff of the Master effect change (to pre-existing):
While the Essence Projection is active: relocation ability’s cooldown reduced to 4 seconds (changed from 2 seconds).
Essence Projection relocation gains an additional 2 seconds of cooldown if used within 1600 radius of the enemy Well.

Lord Salforis

Life Tap

Staff of the Master effect addition (new):
Cooldown reduced to 3 seconds.

The Undying

Staff of the Master effect change (to pre-existing):
Distance required from the enemy to pause the duration of The Undying increased from 600 units to 900 units.

= Heroes =

Adrenaline

Shard Blast

Base Mana Cost increased from 60/75/90/105 to 65/80/95/110.
Base Cooldown increased from 2.4 seconds to 2.7 seconds.
Overall, Shard Blast’s possible cooldown values are now reduced from 2.4/1.8/1.2 seconds to 2.7/2.1/1.5 seconds with respect to hitting 2 or more enemy heroes 0/1/2 times within the last 10 seconds.
Bonus Magic Damage dealt based on your primary attribute reduced from 30/40/50/60% to 20/30/40/50%.
Touch radius reduced from 100 to 80.
Projectile speed reduced from 2500 to 2200.
Adrenaline’s play numbers are in a healthy position, though he is outputting a little too much damage at a slightly too frequent rate. These adjustments should resolve those issues.

Aluna

Deja Vu

Mana Cost reduced from 70/80/90/100 to 60/70/80/90.
Cooldown reduced from 30/28/26/24 seconds to 24/22/20/18 seconds.
Aluna has been slightly underperforming on a consistent basis ever since Emerald Lightning had its early Attack Speed drain nerfed.
Deja Vu has a long cooldown with an unnecessarily high mana cost for its level of impact, so reducing these values will allow her to use Deja Vu more liberally.

Arachna

Strength per level increased from 1.8 to 1.9.

Webbed Shot

Movement Speed Slow increased from 10/20/30/40% to 15/25/35/45%.
Attack Speed Slow increased from 10/20/30/40 to 15/25/35/45.

Spider Sting

Max Health of the Spiderling increased from 4 to 4/5/6.
Arachna has been consistently underperforming with the shift in the meta (due to items like Lightbrand previously being buffed).
The late-game resilience of the Spiderling from Spider Sting has been increased to make the ability more impactful for its active duration.

Apex

Decimate

Attack Damage dealt increased from 0.5/1/1.5/2x to 1/1.4/1.8/2.2x.

Fire Surge

Now resets Apex’s attack cooldown upon use.

Blitz

Attack Range reduced from 500 to 475.

Bombardier

Bombardment

Magic Damage increased from 25/35/45/55 to 25/40/55/70.
Max potential Magic Damage increased from 100/140/180/220 to 100/160/220/280.

Bramble

Spore Breath

Shield trait: max shield health reduced from 400 to 300.
Self-healing trait: healing multiplier reduced from 0.5x to 0.4x when damaging enemy heroes.

Ensnaring Shrubbery

Heal magnitude when receiving Hero Damage reduced from 35% to 30%.

Chomp!

Shield trait: max shield health reduced from 400 to 300.
Self-healing trait: healing multiplier reduced from 0.5x to 0.4x when damaging enemy heroes.
Bramble has been ever so slightly overperforming throughout 6+ patches and has not been talked about. Small nerfs over time will determine if she requires more changes or not.

Bushwack

Crippling Dart

Now also applies a 75% Miss Chance to the affected target for the duration.
Movement Speed Slow increased from 70% to 75%.
Bushwack’s niche as a specialized Kongor slayer is a little too narrow. A small quality-of-life change to timing Crippling Dart correctly will make him more useful in actual teamfights.

Draconis

Strength gain per level increased from 2.4 to 2.5.

Drunken Master

Drink

Stun and Debuff duration reduction per charge decreased from 1% to 0.5%.
Drunken Master is a little too resilient to crowd control with the recent changes to Drink. This helps alleviate those issues.

Fayde

Base Strength reduced from 20 to 18.

Gravekeeper

Corpse Toss

Now has 2 charges at all levels (instead of having 1/1/2/2 charges).
Magic Damage rescaled from 60/100/100/140 to 50/80/110/140.
Stun duration rescaled from 1 second to 0.4/0.6/1/1.2 seconds.
Mana Cost rescaled from 75 to 55/60/65/70.
Gravekeeper gets more flexibility in the laning phase and in his usage of Corpse Toss.

Ichor

Strength growth per level increased from 2.4 to 2.6.

Life Leech

Cooldown reduced from 14 seconds to 12 seconds.

Saint’s Blood

Now grants a base 5% Damage Reduction.
Max Damage Reduction increased from 16/24/32/40% to 21/29/38/45%.
Ichoric Blood active effect no longer depends on Bloodrush in any way.
Ichoric Blood active effect is now available once level 1 of Saint’s Blood is learned.
Ichoric Blood now heals the affected target for 5/10/15/20 Health.

Bloodrush

Base Heal per second increased from 15 to 20.
These minor buffs after Ichor’s adjustments in Patch 4.9.3.1 should make him strong, but fair with appropriate counterplay.

Klanx

Attack Range reduced from 550 to 475.
This change allows for more realistic counterplay against Klanx, as well as making it more difficult for him to kite neutral creeps around while farming them (increasing the amount of damage Klanx receives overall when farming neutrals).

Kraken

Tsunami Charge

Travel speed reduced from 1000 to 925 units per second.

Release the Kraken!

Radius for the pull/Movement Speed Slow/Restrain effect reduced from 300 to 250.

Magebane

Flash

Range changed from 600/800/1000/1200 to 650/800/950/1100.

Maliken

Possession

Affected enemies are now Sighted and Revealed for the duration.

Monkey King

Flying Nimbus

Mana Regeneration per second while active reduced from 5/7.5/10 to 3/5/7.

Moraxus

Arcane Shield

Cooldown reduced from 30/25/20/15 seconds to 24/21/18/15 seconds.
Buff duration is increased from 6 seconds to 7 seconds after a successful absorption.

Nitro

Attack Range increased from 575 to 600.

Overdrive

Attack Damage penalty reduced from 60/50/40% to 50/40/30%.

Parasite

Draining Venom

Increased damage dealt to affected target and damage mitigated when receiving damage from the target decreased from 7/14/21/28% to 6/12/18/24%.

Pearl

Asphyxiate

Magic Damage on initial impact increased from 30 to 40.
Initial impact now also instantly removes buffs on the affected enemy target.

Pebbles

Base Intelligence increased from 16 to 17.

Puppet Master

Puppeteer’s Hold

Pull force increased from 80 to 80/100/120/140 units per second.

Voodoo Puppet

Voodoo Puppet is now unkillable. Upon reaching 0 HP, it will persist for another 1.4/1.8/2.2 seconds and then expire.
Overflow damage will not be amplified after this point.
Voodoo Puppet still expires if the affected target moves outside of the leash range.
Puppet Master’s performance has been low ever since his one-trick burst damage playstyle with Assassin’s Shroud into Voodoo Puppet has been discouraged with changes in a past patch.
Puppet Master and his teammates can now properly use Voodoo Puppet as a damage and crowd-control proxy, without amplifying excess damage to the foe and encouraging one-shot burst damage builds with Voodoo Puppet.
This single change to Voodoo Puppet drastically buffs Puppet Master, as damage-time-on-target is greatly increased without directly amplifying damage dealt to the target.

Base Strength increased from 18 to 22.

Rampage

Stampede

Upon casting Stampede on an enemy hero, now also pings the target on the minimap for your team.
Also outputs a team-only chat message that tells them you are charging that player with Stampede!
Now shows a visual effect on the target (only for your team) when they are being targeted by Stampede.
Some quality-of-life changes were added for Rampage to let his team know who he is targeting with Stampede.

Thunderbringer

Attack Range reduced from 400 to 350.
Strength growth per level reduced from 2.5 to 2.

Chain Lightning

Cooldown increased from 1.75 seconds to 2 seconds.

Blast of Lightning

Magic Damage reduced from 115/190/265/340 to 105/180/255/330.

Lightning Rod

Magic Damage changed from 2/4/6/8% to 2.5/4/5.5/7% of target’s Current Health.
Thunderbringer is finally recognized as a viable hero in competitive play. He is still slightly overtuned, but he overall has a unique niche in the game despite mostly only offering damage in ganks and teamfights.

Tremble

Hive Mind

Uncontrollable Shudder’s Attack Damage increased from 60/90/120 to 70/105/140.
Attack Range for Shudder (both controllable and uncontrollable) increased from 128 to 150.

Valkyrie

Starting Attack Damage increased from 42-47 to 45-49.

Courageous Leap

Cooldown reduced from 35/30/25/20 seconds to 25/22/19/16 seconds.

Voodoo Jester

Acid Cocktail

Initial projectile speed increased from 800 to 1200 units per second.
Bounce projectile speed increased from 600 to 700 units per second.

Cursed Ground

Magic Damage per second at level 1 of the ability increased from 6 to 8.

Spirit Ward

Cast Range increased from 400 to 600.
Projectile speed increased from 1000 to 1300 units per second.
Voodoo Jester is not a viable pick at higher levels of play. He has received some buffs that make him more reliable throughout the game.

Wretched Hag

Flash of Darkness

Range reduced from 800/950/1100/1250 to 800/900/1000/1100.

= Items =

Adeve’s Cloak

Recipe cost reduced from 1100 Gold to 900 Gold.
Total cost reduced from 2300/3400 Gold to 2100/3000 Gold.
Max Health bonus reduced from 180/270 to 150/240.
Max Mana bonus reduced from 140/180 to 120/160.
Damage Reduction while active increased from 15%/40% to 20%/50%.
Stun and debuff duration reduction changed from 15%/40% to 20%/50%.
Adeve’s Cloak receives some number changes to make it more of a viable choice compared to other cost-effective mid-game items that are commonly picked up on heroes that need to protect themselves from burst damage.

Barbed Armor

Recipe Cost increased from 800 Gold to 1100 Gold.
Total Cost increased from 2200 Gold to 2500 Gold.
Cooldown reduced from 40 seconds to 35 seconds.
Return Damage from Barbed Armor’s active effect now ignores 50% of the damage reduced by Armor and Magic Armor.
Barbed Armor has been a little ineffective since its adjustment. This increases the item’s viability without bringing back the problems it previously had, while maintaining an appropriate price point for its effects.

Ether Jewel

No longer grants Couriers any amount of Max Mana.

Portal Key

Range reduced from 1200 to 1100.
Portal Key’s range is being reduced slightly due to the general attack range and cast range changes that have taken place within the last few patches.

Ward of Sight and Ward of Revelation

Usage is now disabled when on a Courier.

== 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
Balanced Random

== Bug Fixes & Optimizations ==

= General =

Dead pixels on certain loading screens have been fixed.
Fixed an issue with OpenGL where the game environment would be darkened after certain abilities are cast (e.g. Black Ice Ellonia’s Frigid Field).
The opposing team can no longer unpause a paused game earlier than expected in certain circumstances.
Fixed an issue where voice chat occasionally fails to function in certain games.

Blitz Mode

Cooldown reduction no longer stacks with Grimoire of Power or Mystic Illusion Rune.

Hero Behaviour Changes

The “Use Courier” ability no longer erroneously plays an animation for the hero when used.
Toggling an autocastable ability by right-clicking it no longer breaks your hero’s current Hold Position command.
The “Use Courier” ability no longer breaks your hero’s current Hold Position command.
Queued movement orders for a unit will no longer retain terrainwalking-related traits in their pathing when they are lost if no other order is given during that time.

The following abilities will no longer be interrupted if the target teleports into fog:

Deadlift’s Onslaught
Legionnaire’s Terrifying Charge
Nomad’s True Strike
Rampage’s Stampede
Solstice’s Blinding Rush and Shadow Dash

= Heroes =

Balphagore

Hell on Newerth (when boosted by Staff of the Master) now properly deals a maximum of 400/550/700 Magic Damage.
Tooltip said a max of 500/750/900 Magic Damage, but the in-game values were actually the same as its unboosted values (300/450/600 Magic Damage).
Regardless, the numbers have been changed to be correct.

Berzerker

Chain Spike is now properly detected by certain sources (e.g. Mana Battery, Power Supply) on the initial cast of the ability.

Corrupted Disciple

Loki (HD) avatar model is now correct in the HoN Store.

Dampeer

Count Dampeer will no longer be immune to Puppet Show’s effects when Consume is at max charges.

Forsaken Archer

Santa’s Little Archer attack sound effects are now synchronized properly with her visual attack timings.

Flux

Staff of the Master’s effects now properly apply to Cyborg Flux’s Discharge in push mode.

Gladiator

No longer plays the whip attack animation when attacking structures.
Credits to Gimji for the fixes!

Goldenveil

Homecoming Stone, Post Haste, and Pegasus Boots now expire the Perch state on Goldenveil if it is active.

Grinex

Songkran Grinex now shows its full water effects on its tentacles.
Lynn X avatar now uses her own voice lines (instead of the default Grinex avatar’s voice lines).
Credits to Gimji for the fixes!

Ichor

Saint’s Blood now properly applies its damage reduction when Bloodrush is learned.

King Klout

Conscription’s hex effect is no longer restricted by the cooldown on the ability (only the minion upgrade effect is affected by the cooldown).

Kraken

Killer Kraken’s voiceovers are now correct when casting Release the Kraken!

Myrmidon

Default avatar’s Forced Evolution form’s attack animations have been fixed.
Credits to Gimji for the fixes!

Parasite

Circe will no longer be able to permanently control an Infested creep if Circe’s Twisted Visage on Parasite expires on the same frame that the projectile spawns from her Parasite Mimic.
When attempted to Infest a creep that has already been Infested (e.g. interactions with Circe’s mimic), the Infest state on the creep will be dispelled, causing the Infested creep to die and kicking out its host.
Previously, the most recent Infest source would have control of the Infested creep, and all previous hosts would be unable to escape from the creep or do anything until the creep dies.

Pharaoh

Wrath of the Pharaoh no longer considers Couriers as valid potential targets.

Predator

Terror no longer has a Physical effect type check. This allows attacks enhanced by Harkon’s Blade against a Physically immune unit to properly apply Terror.

Prisoner

The affected enemy unit will now always have sight of the Shackled gadget.

Puppet Master

Voodoo Puppet no longer plays a sound every frame if a DoT effect is active on it.

= Items =

Items in consumable slots will now drop properly if the “Drop Items” game option is enabled.

Lightbrand, Frozen Light, Searing Light, and Dawnbringer

DoT state is now properly transferred by certain abilities (e.g. Parasite’s Facehug).

Ophelia’s Pact

Now outputs chat messages to the player as objectives are being completed.
This keeps a record of the current quest progress, which is difficult to feasibly keep track of on the Ophelia’s Pact quest state tooltip.

Pegasus Boots

The user can no longer target themselves with Pegasus Boots’ activation.

Ward of Sight & Ward of Revelation

Wards with the Lookout Ward skin now properly trigger the quests for Ophelia’s Pact in the proper scenarios.