Before I get into the first ever HoN Hero Power Rankings, I just want to give a brief overview of where I’m coming from,and where I hope to see these weekly rankings go as we progress through the Tour.
So let’s go ahead and dive right into the rankings. These are entirely done by me. You are most assuredly going to disagree with me on many placements, if not every single one. But that’s the fun in doing these; let me know where YOU think a hero belongs!
Honorable Mentions:
Cthulhuphant, Wretched Hag, Witch Slayer, Demented Shaman
These four heroes are very powerful and see decent game time in their own rights, but they all fall prey to the same problem. They’re all heroes who only really enjoy success under certain lane setups, most notably in heroes like Hag and Witch Slayer. Those two heroes can really succeed in a 1v1 mid lane, but in today’s game, teams quite often run dual-mid setups and demote those heroes to either suicide or support roles, respectively.
While I couldn’t find a place for him in the first set of rankings, I have a good feeling he’ll be working his way up the ladder as the weeks go on. Banning the hard carries seems to be a growing trend, and because of that Monkey King should start to see more action.
It’s too early to have any idea where to really put him, but at the same time Prophet seems way too powerful to be left off this list. I definitely think he has the potential to be a top fifteen hero in time.
#23 Magmus
Very strong heroes, but they suffer from being pretty much limited to short lane support and on occasion as part of a dual mid. While they do it fairly well, you really need to be versatile in today’s game.
Were this list based solely on a hero’s individual power, Jeraziah would be in the top three, but the Lock Pick phase really screws this all up. He’s often blind banned or regularly banned. If he’s put in the lock pool, a team has an opportunity to counter-pick heroes to deal with him. But regardless, this hero has to be on the list due to the fact that if a team fails to appropriately deal with Jeraziah during Lock Pick, they’re in for an incredibly difficult game.
A hero that would be much higher up on the list were he not so incessantly banned. For whatever reason, he falls into this weird niche of being ban worthy, but not lock worthy. A vast majority of the time he will get removed during the regular banning phase. Perhaps teams will start to move him into the lock pool and, if so, this hero will be flying up the list.
#19 The Dark Lady
I know I’m going to get flak for these two placements, but hear me out. Yes, these are two heroes that are essentially “give me time, and we win” picks. But they fall into the same problem as Moraxus. They are banned non-stop, and putting them into the lock pool shows the other team your intentions way too early. If they somehow make it all the way through the regular banning phase, then yes they are top-five quality, but good luck on that actually happening.
#17 Nymphora
#16 Fayde
I’m going to lump these three heroes together because they all kind of excel at the same thing: violently punishing players out of position. They can function in a few different lane setups, but their real power comes in the mid-game timeframe when they start abusing their powerful ultimates.
The anti-jungler and a powerful staple of the pseudo tri-lane. This hero can quickly snowball out of control with successful early game ganks. But he can also quickly snowball into insignificance without those early kills.
One of the “other options” after Magebane and Dark Lady are banned. A hard carry with early game utility is very valuable, but being somewhat spell dependent takes away from this hero just a little bit.
#12 Plague Rider
#11 Wildsoul
These three heroes make the suicide lane less…suicidal. They gain lane control almost immediately. And a hero who can possibly go 1v3 and still gain normal experience essentially nullifies the main point of running a tri-lane. Plague and Tempest have gamebreaker ultimates and Wildsoul is essentially the game’s hardest carry thanks to having twelve item slots. But you’re going to need a little more than that to break into my top ten.
While the hero is occasionally played as a support, Polly is a devastating mid hero. Hit level six, someone dies. Very commonly a first pick in games, and for good reason. A rare combination of hero killing proficiency and pushing power.
Another powerhouse mid hero. Although he’s very commonly blind banned, if he does make it to the lock phase, it’s almost a sure bet he’ll get locked by someone. An initiator who can provide his own vision. The nerf to Cold Shoulder certainly dropped him down a little bit, but as powerful as he is, it wasn’t far.
The reason Silhouette is so high up on this list is that this hero is essentially the most powerful carry—who isn’t banned non-stop. So after the usual suspects are taken care of during the banning phases, you’re left looking for the “best of what’s left.” And this is pretty much your option.
Another very common first pick hero. I’d argue that Bubbles is the best team fight initiator in the game. Extremely hard to kill in the suicide lane. This hero can have an impact on the game from the first minute to the last.
Perennially blind banned, and rightly so. A well-timed gank out of the jungle will not only be a double-tap, but possibly even a double tower push. Banned a little too often to be a part of my first top five. Speaking of which…
The definition of pure support. If a team is running a melee carry, I’d be willing to bet a lot of gold coins that Glacius is in the same lane. By far one of the most-played heroes, and won’t ever become banned simply because every team values him so much.
The cream of the crop when it comes to the suicide lane. He has absolutely everything you’d want in a suicide hero: minions to pull the wave from behind the tower, high strength and strength gain, good armor, and an escape mechanism with built-in health regen. Add in the momentum-swinger ultimate, and you have a hero who will carry top-tier status until being struck with the nerf bat.
This hero breaks into the top three for one undeniable reason: he’s the game’s fastest farmer. You can shut him down all you want early game, but if you lose track of him for any length of time as the game progresses he WILL catch up. He does see significant amounts of banning, but he sort of falls into the same category as Glacius in that usually both teams value him so much that he’s a bit less likely to be banned.
I’m possibly going a little high on Pebbles here, but I’m going to stick to my guns on this one. When you pick Pebbles, you immediately tell the other team, “Look, I’m going to AFK farm until I get a Portal Key, then I’m going to mercilessly kill all your squishy heroes until one of our carries takes over.”
Every team knows this is coming, yet there just isn’t anything that can be done about it. Pebbles with a decent lane partner pretty much ensures that every single Creep kill is going to be his. It’s an absolute rarity that Pebbles makes it through Lock Pick without being picked or banned.
My inaugural #1 pick is indeed the alt avatar-less Amazon. I wouldn’t be surprised if Aluna was just permanently added to the lock pool so teams wouldn’t have to “waste” a lock.
Being successful in today’s game is all about versatility, and Aluna is the epitome of that value. Outside of being a jungler, she can essentially fill all the other roles to some degree. She excels in any lane, with any setup, with any hero, and that’s why she’ll perennially be in the lock pool. She’s a safety net for teams because no matter what happens with the first three picks, you know you can always throw Aluna in there somewhere and make it work.
So thank you for checking out my very first set of HoN Hero Power Rankings. I promise they won’t be as long in the future, as I’ll just be commenting on why certain heroes moved up or down the list. Again, I’d love to hear your input if you disagree with any placements.
Best of luck to all of the teams still competing in the Qualifiers! Maybe your gameplay will inspire my next set of rankings…
-Speidel
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FireSage
I like the lane set up descriptions
Posted about 10 months ago
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