“Lets make like a tree and leaf.”

It was not until recently that Keeper of the Forest’s power was realized by the competitive scene and he became a regular pick or ban, but now it's widely accepted that there is no better hero with which to kick grass (geddit?). Keeper has a diverse range of skills that enable him to effectively farm, initiate or escape. Each one is a powerful ability worthy of investment.



Animate Forest (W) is his primary tool and usually the skill to be maxed first. It transmutes up to five trees into Animated Trees under your control. These minions allow Keeper to efficiently farm the jungle from level one with only moderate mana replenishment items.

Outside of fast neutral farming, Animate Forest is an extremely strong pushing tool. When ganking the nearby lane with his ultimate, Root, Keeper can often convert that gank into a push by rushing the tower with his Animated Trees in addition to the regular Creep wave. Remember, be sure to tank the tower when safe to do so if it means keeping a siege Creep (Heavy Ballista or Hell Cannon) alive.

Secondly, he has access to Nature's Veil, an amalgamation of his previous Camouflage and Nature's Protection. Keeper (or any targeted ally) is made invisible and gains up to twelve armour and four bonus health regeneration per second. With a miniscule cooldown and mana cost, Nature's Veil is one of Keeper's defining skills. Usable for escape or initiation purposes, it is one ability you cannot do without and is usually taken second only to Animate Forest. A word of caution, however—the invisibility will only work if the recipient stays close to trees. You can use your Animated Trees to maintain the invisibility if you fancy a swim in the river.

Entmoot is a passive ability that enhances attack and movement speed while near trees. In that regard, it works similarly to Nature's Veil. Entmoot's overt utility is somewhat eclipsed by the other three skills but it is helpful. The bonus movement speed helps when moving between neutral camps for farming, and it is the perfect supplement to Nature's Veil in an escape as it is a hefty boost. The attack speed performs similarly in the farming role and lets Keeper output decent damage with his auto-attacks to both heroes and towers when fighting and pushing, respectively. An easy skill to overlook, but the unseen benefits of Entmoot will hold you in good stead throughout a match.

Finally, Keeper's ultimate ability, Root, is a monstrous teamfighting skill. It immobilizes and disarms every hero in its huge radius of effect. This makes Keeper an asset to any team when meeting up against their opponents in a five-on-five clash. For this reason, Nature's Veil can be used as an initiation tool, allowing you to cast Root as you come out of invisibility and gank anywhere there are trees nearby. Later in the game, this initiation ability is often supplemented by a Portal Key. This ability makes Keeper a potent counter to Tempest as Root can be used to cancel the channel of Elemental Void even if Tempest has used a Shrunken Head. Make sure you wait for him to channel before jumping in and using Root! Be careful, however, as those trapped in the root are still able to use items and cast spells, inclusive of those that can help them escape its effects (Shrunken Head, Geometer's Bane, Nullfire Blade just to name a few).

Now that we know a little bit about Keeper's skills, what sort of items are the best to supplement him as a hero? Usually Keeper of the Forest is seen getting a Ring of Sorcery, especially when in the jungle, so he can continually cast Animate Forest to farm and maintain mana among the heroes he pushes with. With that in mind, Ring of Sorcery is normally the first item purchased.

What sort of boots to get can be an interesting decision. Plated Greaves are extremely useful for pushing and the bonus passive armour can keep you alive against physical damage output such as that from Monkey King, Deadwood or Pandamonium. Steamboots, however, are better if the enemy team is reliant on magic damage as the increased overall health is useful. This is especially true now that the Shield of the Five can be used in the Sacrificial Stone. Post Haste is rarely worth the investment early on but can work if your team needs to push very hard and very fast as they let you teleport to any of your Creeps.

Supporting your team and enhancing your pushing power simultaneously can be achieved with items like Astrolabe and Barrier Idol. These items should be purchased if there is no one else on your team to get them as their usefulness to the team is immense. Sol's Bulwark fits into this category as well and can eventually be used in the makeup of a Daemonic Breastplate.

Portal Key is a good item to get to buff up your team's teamfight potential as it allows for very good placement of Root and removes your dependence on proximity to trees for initiation. Later in the game, once all other items are maxed out, Restoration Stone can be used to break the stalemate between two potent carries.

With the basics covered, is Keeper worth a pick?

Keeper has been getting steadily more popular among competitive players recently, reaching ban and sometimes blind ban status. His strength in the picking stage is his flexibility in laning. By placing Keeper in the lock pool, a team can garner themselves a reliable hero who can be placed in the jungle or suicide effectively, depending on how the rest of the picking stage goes.

Animate Forest is a skill that lets Keeper of the Forest farm neutral camps from the beginning of the game but the minions can be used to pull an enemy Creep wave to you, similar to Wildsoul and his Booboo. That, combined with his high health pool and the invisibility from Nature's Veil, makes Keeper a formidable hero when in the suicide lane. This flexibility opens up freedom for a drafter to respond to interactions with the opposing captain and is a huge part of Keeper's power.

To put numbers on it, Keeper was picked in 764 times in the HoN Tour Qualifier out of 23,644 heroes picked. As a percentage, he made up 3.23% of all heroes selected in that round, which is definitely above average. He has won 51.9% of games he participated in—which is about average.

Overall, Keeper brings many things to a team and his pushing and teamfighting capabilities will make for a powerful addition.

So Keeper of the Forest sounds like a hero you could use? Want to learn more so you can prepare a game plan against him in your first HoN Tour cycle? Let’s take a look at one of Tt eSports’ star players, Riser_, or Gary Johnson 2024’s jungler, Zfreek.

Zfreek has been known for his Keeper play for some time now and has had consistent performances across many tournaments. He rallied support behind his Keeper play by ganking a lane earlier than level six (something never expected because of a lack of stun/slow) with incredible micromanagement skills, using his Animated Trees to body block the enemy hero. Zfreek frequently uses the Christmas Keeper avatar which is unfortunately unavailable for purchase.

Riser_ has been going up and up in popularity and proven he is a great Keeper player both in the jungle and in the suicide role. Through many games, Riser_'s Keeper has turned the tides of unfavorable matchups and solidified victories for TteS. He garnered huge acclaim for his performance in one game against Trademark eSports in which his interactions with the enemy Tempest were a minigame unto themselves. Although TteS did not win the match, Riser_ played a huge role in keeping them alive for as long as they were. He often uses the Mother Nature Keeper alt avatar, which Merrick will happily give you in exchange for only 500 silver coins!

Now that we know all about our resident tree, I wish you all the best of luck using and abusing him in all your HoN Tour matches!

- Seah0rse
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