Introduction

This guide is mainly written for people who played the popular Warcraft III map Defense of the Ancients (DotA) or Dota 2 for a while, got familiar with it and now made the transition to Heroes of Newerth (HoN). It will note most of the HoN items and heroes which have an equivalent in DotA, as well as new features and different in-game mechanics of the game.

This guide is not meant for people who are completely new to HoN and DotA.

Equivalent Terms

UI

Engine

Certain engine limitations do not exist in HoN unlike in DotA. Dota 2 decided to port many of these limitations from Warcraft III's engine, but HoN lacks these elements.

Anti-stuck Mechanic: In Warcraft III and Dota 2, if you were to blink to an impassable terrain, you would be stuck there until you blink to a movable terrain. In HoN, you will be given temporary "Terrainwalking" until you move to a location where you are not surrounded by impassable terrain.

Notably, before DotA 6.79, Pudge and Vengeful Spirit were not allowed to carry a Blink Dagger because they can get a unit stuck in impassable terrain by moving them there, while Devourer and Andromeda did not have this restriction. While this restriction was removed as moving a unit to impassable terrain with Pudge or Andromeda gives them free pathing for 5 seconds, it does not cover all cases of a unit getting stuck on terrain.

Blink distance: In Warcraft III, you had to carefully target your location in order to blink the full distance. If you were to blink to a location outside of the radius, you would only move 80% of the maximum distance. In HoN, you will move the full distance. HoN also does not require a minimum blink distance. This behavior currently only applies to Blink Dagger in Dota 2.

No input delay: In Warcraft III and Dota 2, there is an approximately 500 ms delay before your commands actually goes through. HoN does not have such delay, and as a result, the action in HoN tends to be more fast-paced. For example, Bubbles' Shell Toss (Puck's Illusory Orb) had to be sped up because its original speed of 600 was too easy to dodge in HoN compared to DotA.

New targeting schemes: HoN supports two new targeting schemes: Target Vector and Vector Entity. Both of these lets you select a ground or target, drag towards a direction and release to aim your skills. HoN also has another targeting scheme called Target Dual, combines Target Position with Target Unit (which means Target Position spells can target a unit for better precision).

Camera zoom distance: Both Warcraft III and Dota 2 allows the camera to be zoomed out to a maximum of approximately 1650 units. From Version 3.4.0, HoN's camera zoom distance was increased to 1850 units.

Multi-Unit Control: As of Version 3.7.0, Multi-Unit Control is an option that has player-owned pets copy the owner's command when activated. Automated pets will follow the owner and attack the same target as the owner is attacking. It may also use its active ability if the owner is attacking an enemy hero. Multi-Unit Control can be turned on and off from the game UI.

Other differences

Topic HoN WC3/Dota 2 Movement speed calculation Movement Speed bonuses and Movement Slows are calculated multiplicatively. Bonuses are calculated first, followed by slows. Example: With 300 Base MS, if you have a +20% Movement Speed buff and a 50% Movement Slow, you will have 180 ((300 * 1.2) * 0.5) MS (40% slower). Movement speed bonuses and slows are added up together. Movement speed buffs and slows have equal priority. Example: With 300 Base MS, if you have a +20% movement speed buff and a -50% movement slow, you will have 210 (300 * (1 + 0.2 - 0.5)) MS (30% slower). Armor formula Armor grants Physical damage mitigation equal to ((0.06 * Armor) / (1 + 0.06 * Armor)). Armor grants Physical damage mitigation equal to ((0.05 * Armor) / (1 + 0.05 * Armor)). Magic Armor/Resistance Magic Armor is calculated the same way Armor is. Magic resistance reduces magical damage by a percentage. All heroes have 25% magic resistance (except Meepo and Visage), and additional sources of magic resistance is calculated multiplicatively. Cast time Cast times are bound to the ability itself, so a hero or unit can have different startup and backswing time for different skills. Cast Speed is a new modifier in HoN which can speed up or slow down cast animation. Cast times are bound to the unit, so most skills for a hero or unit share the same cast startup and backswing. Some skills have no startup or backswing time, and a very few skills have different non-zero cast times from the hero's base time. In Dota 2, cast times are bound to the abilities itself, although some quirks from DotA were intentionally ported (Ex. Rubick retains his near-instant cast speed for copied abilities). Tapering Effects (i.e. Purge-type slows) Effects that taper over time are calculated 20 frames per second, resulting in smoother value changes for tapering effects. Does not support tapering effects, so tapering effects are calculated in increments. Movement speed reduction from Purge-type abilities are calculated in intervals. Damage type Combat types are categorized based on the types of unit, and attack and armor types are grouped into one. All neutrals have the same attack and armor type. Also, summoned units share combat types with melee and ranged creeps, with a few exceptions. A unit's attack type and armor type can be different. Many neutrals and summoned units have varying attack and armor types. Mid-animation speed changes Attack and cast animation speeds are determined when the animation starts. Changing the attack or cast-speed mid-animation does not change the current animation's speed until it finishes or is cancelled. (DotA) Same as HoN. (Dota 2) When a unit's attack speed changes mid-animation, the animation speed is adjusted dynamically.

Mechanics

Global Hero Changes

Topic HoN DotA/Dota 2 Level Bonuses All heroes have an Attribute Bonus ability along their main abilities. Each level grants +2 to all stats. This can be leveled starting at Level 1 and every other level afterwards, capped at 10. Heroes can choose a Talent at Levels 10/15/20/25. Each Talent gives a choice of two passive bonuses, which are different for each hero. Talents can range from increased stats, gold per minute, or ability upgrades. Starting Items N/A All heroes start with a free Scroll of Town Portal. It is placed on cooldown when the game begins. Extra Inventory Slots Ward of Sight has its own inventory slot. Wards of Sight with different ownership do not stack in inventory. Heroes have a Backpack that holds 3 additional items. Items in the inventory do not offer any of its bonuses, cannot be used, and cooldowns recover at half speed. Items taken out of the Backpack are inactive for the first 6 seconds. Ultimate Levels Heroes can level their ultimate ability at Levels 6/11/16. Heroes can level their ultimate ability at Levels 6/12/18. Base Stats Heroes have a base Health of 150, base Health Regeneration of 0.25, and no base Mana. Almost all Melee heroes have an Attack Range of 128. Heroes have a base HP of 200 and a base Mana of 75. All Melee heroes have an Attack Range of 150. Attribute Bonuses Strength grants 19 Max Health per point and 0.03 Health Regeneration per point. Agility grants 0.14 Armor per point. Intelligence grants 13 Max Mana per point and 0.06 Mana Regeneration per point. Strength grants 20 Max HP and 0.7% increased HP Regeneration per point. Agility grants 1/6 Armor per point. Intelligence grants 11 Max Mana and 2% increased Mana regeneration per point and 1% increased spell damage every 14 points. Base Magic resistance The standard base Magic Armor is 5.5 (24.8%), but some heroes have slightly higher or lower base Magic Armor, ranging from 3 to 6. All heroes have 25% magic resistance except Visage, who has 10%. Base Health regeneration All melee heroes have a base health regeneration of 1 Health/sec, and all ranged heroes have a 0.25 Health/sec regeneration. All but 20 heroes have a base HP regeneration of 1.5. (As of 7.06) Sight Range All heroes have a standard sight range of 1800/800 (Day/Night). Moon Queen and Flint Beastwood can gain increased sight range with certain abilities. Most heroes have 1800/800 vision range, with a few exceptions. 5 heroes (plus Luna, Lycanthrope, and Winter Wyvern, with certain abilities) have a higher night vision range, and Batrider and Night Stalker have a lower day vision range. (As of 7.05) Leveling The amount of Experience required to level up is equal to 100 + (100 * Level). The amount of Experience required to level up generally follows a 100 + (100 * Level) formula, but certain levels have different XP requirements. (Ex. Going from Level 11 -> 12 takes 775 XP, while going from Level 12 -> 13 requires 1175 XP.)

Environmental

Topic HoN DotA/Dota 2 Additional buildings N/A Shrines exist near each Secret Shop and Ancient camp on their side of the map. They can be teleported to and can be activated to gain an aura that grants large HP/MP regeneration for 5 seconds (5 minute cooldown). Shrines become vulnerable once all Tier 2 towers are destroyed. Runes Every 2 minutes, starting at 2:00, a Rune will spawn a major rune and a Refreshment Rune in one of two Rune spawn locations. Runes do not respawn as long as a major Rune is on the map. Every 2 minutes, starting at 2:00, a Powerup Rune will spawn in one of two locations in the river and a Bounty Rune will spawn in each of the four locations in the jungle. All runes will disappear when not picked up within the next rune respawn time. Starting at 40:00, both sides of the river will spawn a Powerup Rune. Tree respawn time All trees respawn at 5:00 and every 5 minutes after that. (DotA) Same as HoN. (Dota 2) Individual trees spawn 5 minutes after being destroyed until a unit is no longer standing over it. Boss respawn time Kongor respawns 10 minutes after his death. Roshan respawns any time between 8 and 11 minutes after his death. Boss reward Kongor will also drop Bananas starting from his third death. Roshan drops a single-use Refresher Orb starting from his third death. Day/Night cycle Each time of day lasts 5 minutes. Each time of day lasts 4 minutes. Luna's ultimate is able to temporarily change the time to night or artificially extend night time.

Combat Type modifiers

In HoN, lane creeps have different damage modifiers based on whether they are controlled by the AI or the player.

Topic HoN DotA/Dota 2 Melee Creeps (vs. Neutrals) 125% (vs. Towers) 100% damage (vs. Neutrals) 125% or 150% damage (Medium or Heavy armor type) (vs. Towers) 70% damage Ranged Creeps (vs. Neutrals) 125% damage (AI-controlled) or 75% (Player-controlled) (vs. Towers) 70% damage (vs. Neutrals) 75% damage (vs. Towers) 35% damage Neutrals (vs. Creeps) 125% (vs. Heroes) 50% damage (AI-controlled) or 75% (Player-controlled) Most Neutrals have the Normal or Chaos Attack Type, which deals 100% damage to lane creeps (Unarmored) and 75% or 100% damage to Heroes (Normal/Chaos, respectively). Some Neutrals that have the Piercing Attack Type deal 150% damage to lane creeps and 50% damage to Heroes. Siege Units (vs. Heroes) 100% damage (vs. Buildings) 175% damage (vs. Heroes) 85% damage (vs. Buildings) 250% damage

Lane Dynamic

Topic HoN DotA/Dota 2 Creep experience Lane creeps grant 50% bonus experience if there is more than one hero within experience range. N/A Creep Bounty N/A Creep bounty increases by 1 per creep upgrade. Deny experience Melee heroes gain 2/3 of the normal XP values of the denied unit, and ranged heroes gain 1/3 of it. Both melee and ranged heroes gain 25% of the normal XP values of a denied unit. Denied creeps also give 25% of its experience to the denying team. Creep wave upgrades Additional Melee creeps are added on 11:00, 33:00, and 50:00. An additional Ranged creep is added on 22:00. An additional Siege creep is added on 32:00. Additional Melee creeps are added on 15:00, 30:00, and 45:00. An additional melee creep spawns in the middle lane for the first 15 minutes. An additional Ranged creep is added on 40:00. An additional Siege creep is added on 30:00. Creep speed Each creep upgrade grants +5 Movement Speed. Prior to 7:30, the safe-lane creeps have 406 movement speed for 15 seconds after they spawn while the corresponding hard-lane creeps have 243 movement speed for 15 seconds after they spawn. Siege Creeps Siege Creeps have 10 Magic Armor (37.5% Magic damage reduction). Siege creeps spawn every 7th wave. Siege Creeps have 80% Magic Resistance. Siege creeps spawn every 10th wave. Tower stats Towers have 1500/1900 Health, 110/160/210 Attack Damage and 18/18/18/30 Armor. Towers have a Reveal radius of 900. Towers have a passive 25% Armor Penetration to their attacks against Heroes. Towers have 1300/1600 HP, 100-120/122-182 Attack Damage and 17/19/19/29 Armor, plus 3 Armor per nearby enemy hero. Towers have a True Sight radius of 700. Towers grant Armor to nearby allied heroes. Tier 1 towers give +1 Armor, and Tiers 2+ grant +2 Armor. All illusions deal 50% less damage to Towers. Tower aggro Towers will prioritize the closest creeps, followed by the closest heroes. Towers will prioritize the closest creeps or heroes. Backdoor Protection Backdoor protection activates after not taking damage from an enemy lane creep or catapult for 15 seconds. While active, the building gains +75 Health Regeneration until an enemy lane creep or catapult comes within 1500 units of it. Tier 1 towers do not have backdoor protection. The backdoor protection effect is shared among Tier 3 towers and base buildings. Backdoor protection activates if no enemy creeps have been within 900 radius of the building for 15 seconds. When active, the building heals 90 HP per second (up to whatever Health it had before) and take 60% damage (25% damage from illusions) until an enemy lane creep or siege unit comes within 900 units of it. Tier 1 towers and Shrines do not have backdoor protection. The backdoor protection effect is shared among Tier 3 towers and base buildings.

Jungle

Topic HoN DotA/Dota 2 Spawn Times The first neutral camps spawn at 0:30. The first neutral camps spawn at 1:00. Experience/Bounty N/A Neutrals gain 2% increased experience and bounty every 7.5 minutes (with creep upgrades). Pulling Neutrals aggro you for 5 seconds, which means the optimal pull time is x:55. Neutrals aggro you for 9 seconds, which means the optimal pull time is x:51. Stacking You can only stack a camp up to 3 times, with the exception of the Easy camp. The Easy camp can be stacked an unlimited number of times. There is no limit to how many times you can stack a camp.

Modifiers

Topic HoN DotA/Dota 2 Attack Modifiers As of Version 4.1.0, Attack Modifiers have been removed and can stack with each other. However, Lifesteal and Icebrand's slow effects have its own modifier category which cannot stack. As of Version 7.0.7, all Unique Attack Modifiers were removed from the game. All sources of Lifesteal stack additively. Mana Burn/Combustion Mana Combustion effects can be used with any attack modifiers and can be stacked. Diffusal Blade's Mana Burn can be used with Unique Attack Modifiers (but not Anti-Mage's Mana Burn, which is still a Unique Attack Modifier). Lifesteal Passive Lifesteal from items have a modifier, which cannot be stacked. All other Lifesteal effects can be stacked. Lifesteal only works with Attack Damage. Effects that provide bonus damage of a fixed type do not benefit from Lifesteal. Lifesteal is a Unique Attack Modifier. Other sources of Lifesteal that come from auras or certain abilities can be used with Attack Modifier Lifesteal, and only the highest Lifesteal value will take priority. Certain passive effects that add bonus physical damage to attacks benefit from Lifesteal (Ex. physical damage Bash, Mana Burn). Bash All effects with the Bash Modifier share cooldown time. Items with a Bash effect (i.e. Cranium Basher/Abyssal Blade) never trigger on a hero with a Bash ability. Evasion Only the highest Evasion modifier takes place. Evasion effects will stack multiplicatively. Cleave/Splash Cleave damage matches the attacker's Damage Type and is mitigated by Combat Type modifier and Armor/Magic Armor. Cleave damage is modified by Armor Type, but ignores Armor value.

Gold & Bounties

All gold/experience gains and losses are based on Normal Mode settings for both games.

Topic HoN DotA/Dota 2 Starting gold Players start with 600 gold. Players start with 625 gold, or 825 if they randomed a hero in All Pick. Random Pick gold Picking a random hero on All Pick will not give you additional gold. Only Random Pick mode gives 250 additional gold. Players who pick a random hero on All Pick will start with 200 more gold. Swapping a random hero costs 100 gold. Types of Gold There is only one type of Gold, which works the same as unreliable gold in DotA. DotA has two types of Gold: Reliable Gold and Unreliable Gold. Reliable gold is gained from hero kills, assists, tower kills, and Roshan. Unreliable gold comes from everything else. Reliable gold is not lost on death. Passive gold gain You gain 1 gold per 0.6 seconds, or 100 gold per minute. You gain 1 gold per 0.66 seconds, or 91 gold per minute. First kill of the match Bloodlust grants 200 bonus Gold. First Blood grants 150 bonus Gold. Hero kill bounty You gain 250 + (10 * Hero Level) on hero kill, plus kill streak gold if applicable. The total gold bounty can change based on the killed hero's GPM relative to the average GPM, giving up 50% less or 50% more. You gain 110 + (8 * Hero Level) reliable gold on hero kill, plus kill streak gold if applicable. Assists If an enemy hero is killed and you are within 1000 range of the killed hero, you gain (5 * Hero Level) gold. Players also gain an Assist (regardless of proximity) if they have dealt at least 10% damage to the killed hero, applied a debuff or disable on the hero, or healed or applied a buff to an ally that qualifies for the Assist requirement within 20 seconds of the killed hero's death. Total assist gold is equal to half the hero's bounty, split evenly among all assisting heroes. If a hero gets a kill without any assists, the assist gold is split between other teammates as if they had all assisted in the kill. If an enemy hero is killed and you are within 1300 range (including the killer), you gain gold based on how many other allied heroes are around that radius. This gold varies based on the killed hero's Net Worth, the team's Net Worth disadvantage, and the Net Worth factor. The exact formula is listed here (It's Complicated). Although the game keeps track of Assists, it merely tracks whether a hero has dealt damage to the killed hero and does not affect gold or experience gains in any way. Kill streak HoN has a new Kill Streak: Immortal (15+ Kills). Each kill streak starting at your 3rd kill increases your bounty by 50 gold. Your bounty is increased by 400 gold for Bloodbath, and 450 gold for Immortal. Each kill streak you gain also decreases gold lost on death by 25 (200 at Bloodbath, 225 at Immortal). Each kill streak starting at your 3rd kill increases your bounty by 60 gold, maxing out at 480 gold at 10 kills. Gold loss on death You lose 25 gold per hero level on death. This can be decreased with kill streaks. The total gold loss on death can be reduced relative to your GPM to the average GPM, up to 50% less. You lose 50 + [New Worth / 4] unreliable gold per hero level on death. Hero Kill Experience Hero kills are worth 75 + (65 + 5 additional increment per Level) Experience in split Experience plus (12 * Level) Experience only to the killer. Players will split hero kill experience with other players in 1000 range, even if they are dead, as long as they contributed to the hero kill. Heroes grant the following Experience to the killer:

Levels 1-5: 30*Level

Levels 6+: 180 + (100*[Level-5]) All allied heroes within 1300 radius of the killed hero (including the killer) gain additional experience based on the difference in XP and how many heroes are within experience range.

Other

Topic HoN DotA/Dota 2 Courier Each player has a personal courier, which delivers items from the Stash when the Deliver command is used. Couriers are invulnerable and cannot be manually controlled. Each player can also purchase a manually controllable Flying Courier. A player can purchase a Courier from the store, which can be shared among the entire team. The courier can be upgraded to a flying version, which also comes with additional abilities. Couriers must be manually controlled. The courier can also be killed, dropping the items it's carrying while clearing item ownership. Illusions Illusions do not give Gold or XP on death. Most illusions give [2 * Level] Gold and XP. Illusions do not benefit from Lifesteal effects. Illusions deal 60% less damage to buildings and 80% less damage to Roshan. Buyback Each player is limited to 2 buybacks per game. Buybacks have a cooldown of 6 minutes. Buyback also reduces your gold gain by 60% until your normal respawn timer expires. Fortification Fortification lasts 4 seconds and completely negates all damage dealt to buildings. Glyph of Fortification lasts 4 seconds and grants 9999 Armor and magic immunity to buildings and makes your lane creeps invulnerable. Cooldown is refreshed when a Tier 1 tower is destroyed. Uphill Miss Chance N/A Flying units are unaffected by Uphill Miss Chance. Scan N/A Each team can use the Scan ability, which detects if an enemy hero is within a 900 radius area of the target location for 8 seconds. Has a shared cooldown of 270 seconds. Spell immunity Non-damaging effects can be typed Physical or Magic, which are blocked by Physical or Magic Immunity, respectively. Superior Magic or typeless effects bypass immunity effects. Spell Immunity block effects from abilities & items, regardless the type of damage it deals. "Magic Immunity" grants Spell Immunity and 100% Magic Resistance. True Strike True Strike ignores miss chance (including uphill miss chance) and Evasion. True Strike only ignores Evasion. Global abilities and spell block Abilities that hit all enemy heroes are blocked by Null Stone or other forms of spell block. Abilities that hit all enemy heroes are not blocked by Linken's Sphere. Hex/Morph Morph effects apply a 100% Movement Slow to the target, which can be reduced with Slow Resistance. Hex effects sets the target's base Movement Speed to 100 (or 140 with Scythe of Vyse or Lion's Hex), which is affected by Movement Speed modifiers. Purge All slows based on "Purge" taper linearly. Purge-type slows taper off in specific intervals depending on the source. As of 6.85, Purge no longer damages or kills summoned units. Maximum/minimum attack speed Technically, there is no upper or lower limit to attack speed, but because HoN's engine runs at 20 FPS, the highest AS achievable is 10 attacks per second (1 frame startup, 1 frame backswing). There is no absolute minimum. The maximum attack speed boost is +500 (6x faster), and the minimum attack speed slow is -80 (5x slower), regardless of BAT.

Map

Hero Ports

During the early development stages, HoN shared very close resemblance to DotA, including its heroes. As much as 56 heroes from DotA were officially imported to HoN, some with minor changes or as a one-to-one conversion. Barring remade heroes, today as much as 45 heroes in HoN share resemblances to their DotA counterparts, but as both DotA and HoN went through various balance changes, many heroes became differentiated from their counterparts, from minor number changes to drastically altered skill mechanics.

DotA heroes are listed by which name they are commonly referred to in Dota 2.

See this page for detailed hero differences.

Other Mentions

Similar to heroes, HoN shares great similarities to DotA in terms of items. Every item that had existed in DotA was ported to HoN during beta, but similar to heroes, items were rebalanced, changed, and some were even removed.

Item categories work slightly differently in HoN from DotA. Basic item categories are the same, and Common, Weapons, Support and Armor are parallel to Initiative, Combative, Supportive and Protective, respectively. There is no Caster or Artifact category, and items within those categories were moved to different categories. HoN has a Morph Attack category, which lists items that possess Attack Modifiers.

In HoN, the Secret Shop, which sells high-end, expensive basic items outside of the base in DotA, was replaced with the Observatory, which sells Wards of Sight, Potions, and Dusts of Revelation. Items formerly sold at the Secret Shop can be bought at the base, under the Legendary category.

Items are listed by their Dota 2 names. See this page for detailed item differences.

Basic Items

Recipe Items

Other Items

Exclusive Items

Neutrals