Deadwood

Deadwood is a new supporting Strength hero in Heroes of Newerth.  With a number of creative new abilities, Deadwood is extremely versatile and can fill many different roles on a team.  He can farm easily using Uproot (aka Nature’s Vengeance) to boost last-hitting damage and can use Clearcutting to evade ganks.  But Deadwood is also a dangerous ganker with an AOE disable in Rotten Grasp and a high damage ultimate, Willowmaker.  Here is a closer look at all his abilities:

Rotten Grasp (q)

“Calling on the deep corruption underground”, Deadwood roots an area after a two second delay, immobilizing and dealing magic damage to units within.  The effect is analogous to a combination of Pit Lord’s Pit of Malifice and Firestorm abilities being used at the same time.  Landing this spell is a lot like Kunkka’s (Pirate’s) Torrent in Dota.  Because of the two second delay after casting, it is difficult to land but very rewarding.  It has the added advantage that only your team can see where you placed the effect until it takes occurs.  Rotten Grasp is very effective for ganking and as a disable in team battles.

Uproot/Oakbolt (w)

Deadwood uproots a tree to use as a weapon, increasing his attack damage for up to 8 attacks.  He can also throw the tree (an Oakbolt) at an enemy for a mini-stun, damage and slow.  Ideally you rip up a tree, use it for several attacks to boost your last-hitting power or for fighting heroes before throwing it at an enemy hero and uprooting another tree to repeat the process.  This is essential as a farming aid and harassing tool in early game laning. Throwing a tree at any enemy hero is also a great way to set up a Rotten Grasp, since the target is massively slowed when the Oakbolt hits.

Clearcutting (e)

“Not known for his love of nature”, Deadwood can walk through trees, crushing them as he goes past.  Deadwood gains movement, attack speed, and slow resistance with each tree he destroys (up to four charges total).  Clearcutting is ideal for ganking Sand Wraith, blinking heroes, or anyone else who tries to escape into the trees for shelter.  And of course its great for taking shortcuts when chasing down an enemy hero or ganking their jungle, putting a stop to your opponent’s cutesy fog jukes around trees, or clearing Keeper of the Forest’s eyes.  You can also use this spell to evade enemy ganks by speeding up through the woods to get away quickly, or to tunnel into the enemy base to backdoor.

Willowmaker (ultimate) (r)

Deadwood delivers a poignant donkey punch with his stump arm, causing massive damage and slow to the target and in a 90 degree, 600 range cone behind it.  This also reduces the strength of units in this AOE for several seconds.  Willowmaker can also be used without a target, in which case no damage or stun occurs, but the strength reduction and slow still does.  This ultimate is a great way to finish kills after you’ve pumelled them with Oakbolts, chased them down with Clearcutting, and disabled them with Rotten Grasp.  The benefit of reducing the strength of and slowing several enemy heroes in a teamfight is also quite apparent.

Strategy

Recommended Skill Build

1. Uproot
2. Rotten Grasp
3. Rotten Grasp
4. Clearcutting
5. Rotten Grasp
6. Willowmaker
7. Rotten Grasp
8. Uproot
9. Uproot
10. Uproot
11. Willowmaker
12. Clearcutting
13. Clearcutting
14. Clearcutting
15. Stats
16. Willowmaker
17. Stats-> Level 25

Recommended Items

Bottle + Ghost Marchers + Portal Key + Daemonic Breastplate or Frostfield Plate

Early Game

Use Uproot as much as possible.  This gives you increased damage for last hitting enemy creeps and denying your own team’s creeps.  It is also very effective for harassing any enemy melee heroes in your lane or ranged ones that are dumb enough to let you get close.  Keep track of how many attacks you have used with each Oakbolt (there is a counter on the Uproot/Oakbolt ability that will count down with every attack) and throw it at an enemy hero when there is only one or a few hits left before ripping up a new tree.  This method will give you great lane control and allow you to farm with ease early game.  You may want to start with a Ring of the Teacher (Basilius), which will give you enough mana to spam Uproot and Rotten Grasp early game, and which you can later upgrade to an Abyssal Skull.

Once you are level 6, it is easy to start generating kills.  If you are having trouble landing Rotten Grasps, use an Oakbolt to slow the enemy hero before casting Grasp. After they are trapped, you have time to run in, attack them, and use Willowmaker.  Otherwise, a good way to land Rotten Grasps is to set one right when your opponent is going in for a creep last hit and will be motionless for a short time while attacking.  Willowmaker slows the enemy target more so you can chase it and get more attacks in if necessary.

Mid Game

It is  effective to play Deadwood as a ganker since his skills are so good for chasing down, disabling, and nuking enemy heroes.  Usually a Willowmaker and a couple attacks or a Rotten Grasp is enough to kill any Int or Agility hero early game.  Work with cost-conscious items like Enhanced Marchers, Bottle, and Portal Key to hunt down enemy heroes on all parts of the map and try to make a big impact on their farm while the game is still young.

Late Game

In battles it is essential to land a good Rotten Grasp and Willowmaker to disable and slow multiple heroes at a time.  After you have set up the battle in this way, hopefully you or your team’s carries have riced enough to mop up the battle and push the base ftw.

Tags: Clearcutting, Deadwood, hero guide, HoN, HoN beta, oakbolt, rotten grasp, uproot, willowmaker

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 8:45 PM by daggius and is filed under Guides: HoN. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.