Can’t win the traditional way?
If you cant win the traditional way, you can always try to votekick the opposing team. This game was -em, so of course, i’m back at home to buy a heart recipe so that my rapier will always stay my rapier. Shazam! Dawglike (Tiny) tries to votekick me so my homegirl nanners throws a fireball into THD’s face to make the dragon think twice about voting. nothing says “im-too-busy-to-vote-right-now” like a fireball to the face. GIT CRUSHED Daaaaawwwwwglike.
One awesome thing though: a lot of the DotA hosting bots have been adding minor features like votekick that make HON so appealing. Some bots even allow forfeiting.
HoN Pollywog Priest Hero Guide
Pollywog Priest
Pollywog Priest is a ranged Intelligence hero in Heroes of Newerth based on the Dota hero Rhasta, the Shadow Shaman. Pollywog Priest is a supporting hero with a couple of very useful disables and an ultimate that is great for pushing buildings or defending your own. This guide makes use of the remade abilities and spell names that will be released in HoN patch 0.1.67. Let’s take a closer look at the hero:
Electric Jolt (q)
Electric Jolt delivers a spray of magic damage in a cone in front of Pollywog Priest, hitting a target and several units around it as well. This is useful early game to last hit creeps in your lane while simultaneously harassing enemy heroes. It is also very effective in team battles to damage large parts of the enemy team at a time.
Morph (w)
Morph turns the target into toad for several seconds during which they are silenced, perplexed, disarmed, and have a reduced movement speed. The effect is equivalent to that of Witch Slayer’s Miniaturization spell and the Kuldra’s Sheepstick item. This is one of the best disable spells in the game and is very useful in ganking and as a means to neutralize strong enemy carry heroes late in the game.
Tongue Tied (channeling) (e)
Pollywog Priest grabs a target with his tongue and holds onto it for several seconds during which that target is immobilized, revealed, and cannot cast spells or attack. The target also takes a small amount of magic damage over time. Tongue Tied is another very useful disable for Pollywog Priest, great for making opponents suffer early game when they are over-committed to a battle or just in a bad spot with a wave of your creeps going after them. You can also set up your allies for easy kills, especially if you have a nasty melee hero on your side like Swiftblade or Magebane who can rip into them for several seconds while you channel Tongue Tied. This is also a great spell for holding enemies within the wrath of your Voodoo Wards ultimate. Remember that since this is a channeling ability, you should queue up another spell like Morph or Electric Jolt on a hero you are grabbing if you know they are going to survive longer than you can hold them for. You can do this by holding shift then clicking the spell on them. The spell will then be cast as soon as Tongue Tied finishes channeling.
Voodoo Wards (ultimate) (r)
Pollywog Priest drops a pile of Tiki statues that use ranged, physical attacks on nearby enemy units. These attacks do splash damage! These Voodoo Wards can also be selected and controlled to target the unit of your choice (either double click a ward to select all nearby wards, control click a ward, or drag box around them). Voodoo Wards are great for pushing enemy towers and other buildings or defending your own base. They also work well in combination with your Tongue Tied ability to kill off individual enemy heroes in a battle. Another great use of these wards is to stacks of Ancient creeps (the splash damage works wonders on stacks).
Strategy
Recommended Skill Build
- Tongue Tied (1)
- Electric Jolt (1)
- Electric Jolt (2)
- Morph (1)
- Electric Jolt (3)
- Voodoo Wards (1)
- Electric Jolt (4)
- Morph (2)
- Morph (3)
- Morph (4)
- Voodoo Wards (2)
- Tongue Tied (2)
- Tongue Tied (3)
- Tongue Tied (4)
- Stats
- Voodoo Wards (3)
- Stats -> Level 25
Explanation: Tongue Tied is essential at Level 1 so you can grab enemy heroes that are over-committed near your tower or a pushing creep wave so that your lane mate can put damage into them. From Level 2 on we switch the focus to maxing out Electric Jolt and Morph as soon as possible. Not putting further levels into Tongue Tied at this early game stage is a tradeoff that will benefit us in the middle game as a stronger ganking/disabler with a high level of Morph. Going from Level 1 Morph to Level 4 Morph increases the duration of the disable by 180% (1.25 s to 3.5s), while increasing Tongue Tied from Level 1 to Level 4 only increases it’s duration by 90% (2.5s to 4.75s). This is not to say that other Pollywog Priest skill builds will not work. Some players will argue fervently for maxing out Tongue Tied 1st at the cost of leveling Electric Jolt (mainly to hold people for longer in their ultimate), while others prefer a 100% disabling build by maxing out Tongue Tied and Morph at the beginning and neglecting Electric Jolt. Clearly there are a number of different combinations that will work and what’s really important is picking a build that you are confident with and will therefore be able to execute smoothly with in pressure situations.
Early Game
Recommended Early Game items:
+ 
or 
or 
Marchers + Fortified Bracelets or Talismans of Exile or Glowstone
Pollywog Priest has one of the slowest movespeeds in the game and really needs some shoes to gank and make effective use of his disabling abilities. For this reason you should grab an early pair of Marchers and maybe even Enhanced Marchers if you want to become really nasty with chasing heroes down.
Pollywog Priest also needs a large mana pool to use his ultimate and one or two disables plus his nuke all in one battle starting at Level 6. He also needs some more hit points since he is an Int hero and you will be putting all your skill points into spells and not into stats to help his hit points with more Strength. For this reason, Talismans of Exile or Fortified Bracelets are a good choice early game. If you are farming easily enough early game then these can be neglected as you go straight for Glowstone.
Mid Game
Recommended Mid Game items:
Staff of the Master
Staff of the Master is exactly what Pollywog needs. More hit points, a larger mana pool, and a boost to his ultimate that gives it more wards and a shorter cooldown. This makes Pollywog a lot harder to kill and a base-pushing machine.
Other decent choices:
, 
, 
Storm Spirit, Portal Key, Post Haste
If you are looking for a less blunt approach and some more versatility, Storm Spirit is a popular choice. You can cyclone enemy heroes and put your ultimate down (they will be trapped when they come back to the ground). Probably a better option than this if you really want to gank a lot is Portal Key, which lets you catch enemy heroes that are out of position so you can disable them with your abilities. Another good item to have in the middle-late game is Poste Haste, which lets you farm outer lanes and counter-push the enemy base with your ultimate.
Late Game
Recommended Late Game items:
Restoration Stone
Having a Restoration stone and a Staff of the Master makes Pollywog a complete base destroyer. Two sets of Voodoo Wards will drop a set of raxes in a matter of seconds or rip up enemy heroes in a battle.
Counters
Early game Pollywog Priest is slow and has low hit points. Gank him a lot with nuking heroes like Witch Slayer or Thunderbringer. Later in the game if you are being disabled a lot by Pollywog, consider a Shrunken Head especially if you are playing a carry hero. Otherwise, make sure you disable Pollywog before he can disable you. For example, with Chronos you should catch him in your ultimate and kill him or he will merely Morph you during your ultimate, making you completely waste it. Also remember that Voodoo Wards do physical damage not magic, so use armor to reduce the damage you take from them. You might also consider purchasing Barbed Armor or Void Talisman.
HoN Pollywog Priest remodel/remake sneak peak!!
S2 recently released a sneak peak that Pollwog Priest is getting remodeled for the next patch. This is partially just to make the hero more appealing and fun to play, and partially to improve its stats to make it a more competitive hero. Here is a look at the changes (new look above):
Pollywog Priest
- Remodeled and effects redone
- Range increased to 550 from 500
- Base Armor increased to 1.30 from 1.14
-
-
-
New Electric Jolt spell (same basic concept as old version but should work slightly better):
Instead of Magical Bindings, the Pollywog Priest now uses Tongue Tied (same effect on target but much funnier):
Morph now changes the target into a Toad:
Pollywog Priest’s Voodoo Wards ultimate now summons Tiki statues that shoot lasers!
SPOOKY!!!!!!
HoN Thunderbringer Hero Guide
Thunderbringer
Thunderbringer is a ranged Intelligence hero in Heroes of Newerth. Identical to Dota’s Zeus, he is an all-out nuking hero killer with an ultimate that hits enemies on any part of the map. And thanks to his Lightning Rod ability, which scales directly with increasing hit points throughout the game, Thunderbringer does not peak early like other nuking Int heroes and remains relevant late into the game. Because of this he is always one of the highest overall damage-outputting heroes in every match. Here is a look at his abilities:
Chain Lightning (q)
Chain Lightning is a low damage, low manacost spell that bounces between many targets. The main use for this, early in the match, is to get last hits on creeps while simultaneously harassing the enemy heroes in your lane. This makes up considerably for Thunderbringer’s short-range, low damage attack, which also has a lousy animation and makes last hitting quite difficult against any skilled opponent. Later in the game, Chain Lightning becomes invaluable as a way to continually proc your Lightning Rod passive to massively reduce enemy heroes’ hp in an AOE around you, as Chain Lightning can be spammed every TWO seconds with one of the lowest cooldowns of any spell in the game!
Blast of Lightning (w)
Blast of Lightning deals high magic damage to a single target and mini-stuns it. This is a great way to drop heroes hit points quickly and get kills. The cooldown is relatively short (only 7 seconds) so you can also use this once and walk alongside the target until it is up again in order to use it twice against one hero you are trying to kill. This is a good way to take down beefier heroes provided you have the mana capacity. Also consider that Blast of Lightning’s mini-stun can be used to cancel channeling abilities and enemy heroes’ teleportations. In addition, Blast of Lightning reveals invisible units in an area around it for several seconds. Either use this on a windwalking hero before they go invis to keep track of them, or on a nearby unit if they have already gone invis and you need to find them. You can also use this to detect wards on the battlefield and clear them.
Lightning Rod (passive)
Lightning Rod procs additional damage (between 5-11% of enemy hit points based on level) to nearby enemy heroes every time Thunderbringer casts a spell. Since the cooldown on Blast of Lightning and especially Chain Lightning are so short, this allows Thunderbringer to absolutely punish the health of the enemy team as long as he can stay alive and keep spamming in team battles. Also consider that since Lightning Rod scales with hit points it is great into the late game when heroes have tanked up and have 2000 hp or more. Every two seconds you can cast Chain Lightning which only does 130 damage, but the passive effect of Lightning Rod will add 220 more damage to all nearby enemy heroes every time. This type of scaling allows Thunderbringer to remain very relevant in late game unlike many other Int heroes.
Lightning Storm (ultimate) (r)
Lightning Storm does a medium amount of magic damage to all visible enemy heroes. Any invisible heroes will be revealed for several seconds but not damaged. Using this ultimate is a great way to help your allies get kills in other lanes without having to leave your own (whether you killsteal them or get an assist is up to you). You can also kill heroes that are getting away with very low health or prevent heroes like Behemoth or Magmus from blinking in on you with Portal Keys at the beginning of team fights. Lightning Storm also gives you vision of all enemy heroes, so you can use it to check if the enemy team is killing Kongor or ganking your woods, etc.
Strategy
Recommended Skill Build
- Chain Lightning
- Lightning Rod
- Blast of Lightning
- Blast of Lightning
- Blast of Lightning
- Lightning Storm
- Blast of Lightning
- Lightning Rod
- Lightning Rod
- Lightning Rod
- Lightning Storm
- Chain Lightning
- Chain Lightning
- Chain Lightning
- Stats
- Lightning Storm
- Stats -> Level 25
Explanation: At Level 1, we want a level of Chain Lightning to last hit creeps and simultaneously harass enemy heroes in our lane. At Level 2, we grab Lightning Rod, which adds 5% of their hp in damage to nearby enemy heroes every time we cast a spell. At the beginning of the game when enemy heroes have about 600 hit points this adds 30 damage to every nuke we use (23 after which correct for 25% natural magic resistance), which is better than (twice) the +15 (+12 corrected for magic resistance) damage against heroes we’d get for having a second level in Chain Lightning, and it also works when we cast our other spells. At Level 3 we start maxxing out Blast of Lightning which will be our main hero killing spell and push this through to Level 7 when it is maxxed, grabbing our ultimate at Level 6 along the way. At Level 7, unloading a quick combo of Level 1 Chain Lightning + Level 7 Blast of Lightning + Level 1 Chain Lightning + Level 1 Lightning Storm with our 1 Level of Lightning Rod included will deal (85+30) + (350+30) + (85+30) + (210+30) = 850 damage to any one target (613 after magic resistance reductions), which is more than enough to kill any Agility or Intelligence hero early in the game that you have been keeping harassed with Chain Lightning up to that point.
After Blast of Lightning is maxxed out, we max out Lightning Rod since it adds more total damage to enemy heroes than getting more levels of Chain Lightning, then finally max out Chain Lightning last.
Early Game
Recommended Early Game Items:
+ 
+ Mana Potions + Bottle + Marchers + Fortified Bracelets
Mana Potions are a no-brainer, especially if you aren’t soloing mid and won’t be able to as easily refill a bottle to keep your mana supply healthy while spamming Chain Lightning for last hits and harass in your lane. If you are soloing mid, then Bottle + Marchers are essential to control the runes and gank with early game. A Fortified Bracelet will also help if things are getting scrappy and you’re taking a lot of heat.
Mid Game
Recommended Mid Game Items:
Ring of Sorcery
Thunderbringer needs to spam spells pretty much nonstop every battle to make use of Lightning Rod and drain enemy heroes hp as much as possible. This means two things: he needs a larger mana pool, and he needs faster mana regeneration. The best item for your buck to take care of this is Ring of Sorcery, which increases your mana pool by 300 and recovers about 200 mana a minute for a total cost of only 1700 gold. There are plenty of other options that will increase your mana pool and regeneration if you dont want to/can’t get Ring of Sorcery (many leagues/tournaments limit it to one Ring per team). Some of these possible choices are: Nome’s Wisdom, Stormspirit, Sacrifical Stone, and Null Stone. Staff of the Master is a less favorable choice since it doesn’t give very much mana or any mana regen for it’s considerably massive price (4400), and improving your ultimate isn’t nearly as important as being able to spam spells nonstop in team battles to drain health with Lightning Rod.
You also might want to think about increasing your versatility with items like Enhanced Marchers or Portal Key. These can make you a lot more aggressive of a hero killer if you are finding the money in the middle of the game.
Late Game
Recommended Late Game Items:
+ 
Kuldra’s Sheepstick + Behemoth’s Heart
Kuldra’s Sheepstick is the best late game item on Intelligence heroes and adds some much needed disable to Thunderbringer’s abilities. The added mana regeneration, hit points, and Intelligence increase are all very welcome to Thunderbringer as well. If the game goes really late then you might want to think about a Behemoth’s Heart. You can’t go wrong with -15% skill cooldown and +30 cast speed on a hero that loves spamming, and the added hit points don’t hurt either.
Remember that in team battles your goal is to stay alive and keep spamming as long as possible. You need to get close enough to enemy heroes to cast on them and make your Lightning Rod passive work on them, but not so close that they are able to focus you and take you out of the battle before you’ve unloaded massive damage. Try to wait for them to commit to fighting other members of your team, or have your team initiate first, so that you can operate smoothly without getting focused by some turd on the other team.
Counters
The best way to deal with Thunderbringer is to grab a Mana Battery or Power Supply if you are laning against him early in the game. This will give you a charge every time he spams Chain Lightning (which is a lot), allowing you to maintain your health and giving you mana to spam back at him. Also make Bracers, Strength Steamboots, or whatever it takes to increase your hit points to keep him from nuking you to death early in the match. Later in the game pick up a Shaman’s Headress or Barrier Idol and the amount of damage you take from him will decrease immensely.
