Heroes of Newerth Champion Remakes and New Abilities

Heroes of Newerth Champion Remakes and New Abilities
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Heroes Of Newerth - Getting Ready to Release

With the full release roster of heroes completed, the task fell upon S2 Games to “touch up” and redesign some of the characters in HoN that just weren’t cutting it on the competitive or casual scenes. Some Odd creatures like the farm-friendly candy loving owl Zephyr, and the time-traveling Chronos just weren’t cutting it. Heroes that needed a good forty minutes of sitting around in the woods before getting in on the action; heroes that would elicit groans of dismay and disgust from your teammates if you picked them. Not familiar with HoN? Check out this handy starter guide.

Well, time for the good news! These guys have gotten a brand new coat of paint and are ready to roll out into your games, and instead of cringing, your teammates will be cheering you on when you pick one of these rowdy remakes.

The Shocking New Electrician

We all remember the “old” Electrician, a roly-poly balloon of a hero who could disable and take hits, but not much else. Guess what? Now his mana shield gives him a persistent damage aura, which makes it so he can actually get easy creep kills as well as finishing off heroes foolish enough to engage him in melee range. If this wasn’t good enough, his energy absorption PBAOE attack has been changed as well - it doesn’t give him armor or magic armor anymore, and it doesn’t have to.

It now gives him movespeed as long as he connects with it, which means you can grab your foe with static grip and your damage pulsing shield on to really weaken them up and then chase them down with your bonus movespeed to finish them off! This is a really exciting new take on a hero that was, until now, basically only chosen to counter Jereziah or for fun. The new electrician is sure to add a potent jolt of electric excitement to your games from here on out.

Time for a New Chronos

Ah Chronos. He’s needed some love for a long time, being relegated to the depths of Scout players by the HoN public. Picking Chronos was the in-game equivalent of stabbing your teammates in the face and rubbing salt in their wounds. But now, fear not - he’s not only playable, but downright dangerous.

First off, his snaring teleport time leap has been given a damage component. A very nice change, but not very interesting. Rewind has been redesigned to give Chronos his health back at a rapid rate from being damaged instead of just simply ignoring random attacks. Time freeze has been renamed and reworked as well, it now steals agility from his opponents on successful hits, and four consecutive hits on a target will trigger a 1 second stun.

Perhaps the biggest change is his trademark chronosphere - his allies can now move around, attack, and cast inside the time locked bubble while the opponents are trapped! Granted, they have 90% reduced speed but it’s much better than how it used to work. Guess what? Staff of the Master now works with this ultimate, and will reduce the penalty for your allies moving about in the timefield.

That Crazy Owl, Zephyr

HoN new Zephyr!

The hero that definitely needed the most help out of any of them, the enigmatic Zephyr. Traditionally this hero has been the “Dan from the Street Fighter series” someone just to play around with for fun because he was not a competitive hero in any way. At best, he was a woods farmer who could carry in the very late game if your team could survive that long with you doing absolutely nothing in the way of being useful up to that point.

Well the winds of change have come, and Zephyr is actually playable now. His leap has been replaced with a cone stun attack that deals a spiffy amount of magic damage.

Cyclones have been changed, they will automatically heal Zephyr as they expire. The wind shield ability is now passive and gives him a movement speed buff as well.

His useless ultimate has been changed in a big way - it now summons a typhoon in a location, and winds spin around in a large radius slowing the targets based on how close they are to the epicenter of the storm. Not only does it do this, but it also deals a substantial amount of damage over the course of the spell, again based on their proximity. This is already a massive improvement over his old skill, but not only does it do all those things, it also gives Zephyr his maximum amount of cyclones when he casts it.

Owl lovers, rejoice. Your hero is finally here!