Welcome to Speidel's HoN Tour Patch Analysis for 2.6.32!
Dig: Mana cost lowered from 120 to 90/100/110/120.
As minor as a change as this might seem to be, this actually could have a serious impact on Geomancer’s playtime. We hear it time and again that bkid likes Geomancer and has even put him in the lock pool more than once. If this is enough to get [coL]compLexityGaming to put the worm in their lineup, you could potentially see massive mimicking by other teams. I’m hoping this happens, as it’s always nice to see different heroes being played.
Will it actually happen though? Probably not.
Consume: Regardless of killing your target you get a charge no matter what.
Killing a Hero still grants 3 total charges.
Now this is a change that was a long time coming. Dampeer is really dependent upon having those three maximum charges up to make him effective. Missing a charge because of a miscalculation on your damage output can essentially make you useless for another 30 seconds. So this is a nice change to help soften the blow of what is really a huge penalty for dying.
That said, this change really shouldn’t have any impact on getting Dampeer into more HoN Tour games. Players at this level shouldn’t have any problems last hitting with Consume, so this change really isn’t a “buff” so to speak for those in the competitive scene. Good change, just not going to be impactful on the Tour.
Grappling Shot: The damage is now Physical. Damage reduced from 100,200,300 to 80,160,240.
I think it’s easy for someone to look at the numbers on the damage being reduced and think this is a nerf, but this is definitely a nice buff for a fringe carry hero. Something very important to keep in mind here: Grappling Shot also reduces the target’s armor, and does so before the damage is applied.
Considering that his other damaging spell is physical damage, items and spells that reduce armor will synergize even better now with Gunblade. I think this change really has the potential to put Gunblade on the map as a viable carry. However, it’ll be up to teams to decide if they’re comfortable enough with this somewhat newer hero to warrant actually playing him.
Flick: Now deals a tiny amount of damage to break portal keys, potions, etc.
A most welcome change. It was quite aggravating that someone could just port away immediately after being flicked. This obviously isn’t going to be a playtime impacting change to Pandamonium, but I wish it was because Newerth could always use some more talking Panda.
Fervor: Illusions will now add a charge of fervor after 3 attacks.
Yet another change to help make illusions slightly more useful than just early game last hitting supporters. This certainly isn’t going to inspire an influx of Geometer’s Bane Pyro builds, but still adds some fun to an illusion rune nonetheless.
Final Chapter: Reduced mana cost from 250/350/450 to 200/250/300.
Considering that this spell is really the only reason anyone ever picks this hero, it’s nice to see that its mana cost has been reduced to a much more respectable range. While this is certainly a fantastic update for this game-changing spell, it’s what Vindicator offers as a whole that is keeping him from seeing any significant game time on the Tour. This change unfortunately isn’t going to do much to improve upon that.
And finally the most important change of all…
Holiday music and things have been added for the holiday season.
Happy Holidays fellow Newerthians!
-Speidel
2
Dunamis
Yay for the worm, who cares about the other updates =p. Makes Damp more noob friendly, I don't like that at all
Posted about 9 months ago
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