HoN Tempest Hero Guide
Tempest
Tempest is a ranged Intelligence hero in Heroes of Newerth. Based directly on Enigma from Dota, Tempest is a supporting hero that is strong in the jungle and as a lane ganker, and is really powerful later in the game as a AOE disabler in team battles. Tempest’s Elemental Void ultimate is a leading cause of GENOCIDE in HoN. Here is a closer look at all Tempest’s abilities:
Glacial Bursts (q)
Glacial Bursts releases a series of stuns and damages the target unit in two second intervals. While it only stuns the target once at Level 1, it stuns twice at Level 2 and three times at Level 3. This is an essential disable that makes it very difficult for targets to escape and allows Tempest and teammates to pummel the target with additional attacks as it runs. This also allows Tempest to get closer to the target with each mini-stun in order to use his other spells like Meteor or Elemental Void.
Elemental (w) (summon)
Elemental summons three ranged elementals after killing target creep. This can be used on an allied creep to deny the experience and gold from nearby enemy heroes, or on an enemy creep to instantly gain experience and gold from the kill. The summoned elementals also duplicate after attacking six times which makes them exceptional for killing neutral creeps in the jungle. With good micro, Tempest can keep all his elementals alive always pulling back the weakest one before it dies and then let it keep attacking from a safe distance so that it can respawn into two new elementals at full health each. In this way, Tempest is able to kill several creep camps in the jungle with his elementals without having to tank any damage himself. Elementals are also effective to gank the lane from behind in combination with Glacial Bursts, or to push towers with.
Meteor (e)
Meteor deals AOE magic damage to units in a large radius equal to a percentage to each unit’s total health. This becomes more effective later in the game as heroes continue to increase their hit points and will therefore take more damage from Meteor as it scales up. Meteor is also really deadly when used in combination with Tempest’s Elemental Void ultimate, which can be used to hold enemy heroes within the Meteor radius and drain their health for a long duration.
Elemental Void (r) (ultimate) (channeling)
Elemental Void is a channeling AOE disable that also does magic damage in the radius. Enemy heroes caught in the Void are silenced, perplexed, disarmed, and immobilized, which means they pretty much can’t do anything for the four second duration unless a teammate is able to stun or disable Tempest to break up his channeling. The best way to use Elemental Void is to blink in with Portal Key in order to quickly disable a group of unsuspecting enemy heroes for your teammates to mop up. Throwing down a Meteor spell first will greatly increase the amount of damage the enemy takes during your ultimate, but it may give them time to stun you or get away from the area before you can get Elemental Void off. Later on when you have Shrunken Head it will be easier to safely cast Meteor before using Elemental Void.
A common mistake made with Elemental Void is players trying to cast it too far from Tempest’s body. This causes Tempest to move a small distance to get into casting range before beginning to channel it, at which point the enemy heroes may have moved away and won’t be caught in it. When players see this happening they usually panic and hit S or esc to cancel the command but end up canceling it a few milliseconds late, right after it’s begun channeling and end up losing the spell completely for a long cooldown. A good way to avoid this type of error is to always make sure you move your hero to the spot you want to ultimate and just cast the spell very close to Tempest’s body. This way it will cast instantly without moving the hero first and you will catch whichever heroes were near you at that moment.
Strategy
Recommended Skill Build
- Glacial Bursts
- Elemental
- Elemental
- Glacial Bursts
- Glacial Bursts
- Elemental Void
- Glacial Bursts
- Meteor
- Meteor
- Meteor
- Elemental Void
- Meteor
- Elemental
- Elemental
- Stats
- Elemental Void
- Stats -> Level 25
Explanation: At level 1 you don’t need Elementals since you should pulling creeps from the lane and having a stun instead could get you an early kill or be useful in some other way. At level 2 and 3 we want Elementals to hit the jungle, but getting more than 2 levels in Elementals is really unnecessary since they are strong enough at Level 2 to kill any neutral camp with some micro. Therefore we max out Glacial Bursts asap to gank the lane intermittently and get some kills in combination with Elemental Void when we hit Level 6. We learning Meteor at level 8 so that it will be leveled up when we need it to deliver damage in mid game team battles.
Early Game
Recommended Starting items:
+ 
+ 
Minor Totems + Mana Potions + Runes of the Blight
Several Mana Potions are essential on Tempest to make ample use of Elementals and still have mana remaining for your stun and ultimate to gank the lane with. An alternative to this is Ring of the Teacher which will give you some mana regen and also armor for your elementals, but this is a lot more expensive and puts out mana a lot slower. Minor Totems are good since they are the most cost effective way to increase your mana pool, hit points, and attack damage. You can also turn them into a Power Supply or Astrolabe later if desired.
Early game you should be pulling creeps to your lane (unless it’s warded). Then when you are Level 2 or 3 you can start tanking neutral creep camps with elementals. Then come back to the lane in between creeping when you have six elementals up and come from behind with Glacial Bursts and you will easily generate kills on the stunned hero with combined attacks from your six elementals, Tempest, and your teammate.
Recommended Early Game items:
+ 
Portal Key + Marchers
Portal Key is essential to set up your ultimate in future team battles. You can also use it to be really aggressive and catch escaping or lone heroes by blinking in and stunning them with Glacial Bursts.
Mid Game
Recommended Mid Game items:
Shrunken Head
Use Shrunken head right before blinking in to cast your ultimate in team battles. This will prevent enemy heroes that are not trapped in your ultimate from stunning, silencing, or otherwise disabling you to break up your channeling of the spell. After Shrunken Head you can always use Meteor before Elemental Void as well, since you will won’t have to worry as much about getting disabled if you don’t use your ultimate immediately. Otherwise just make sure to throw down Meteor in the most focused spot where it can damage the most enemy heroes, like on a ramp if the other team is pushing into your base. And use it a lot since the cooldown is only 20 seconds.
For the most part, getting a good ultimate off with Tempest is the most important thing, which should usually be done in one of two ways:
1. Initiate the battle with your ultimate when you see a clump of several enemy heroes that you can quickly blink onto and disable for your team to kill OR
2. Wait until after the team battle has been initiated and enemy heroes begin to cluster up and commit to the battle by attacking your teammates and casting their spells. Then blink in and disable them with your ultimate.
Late Game
Recommended Late Game item:
Restoration Stone
Late game, Restoration Stone will help by resetting the extremely long cooldown (three minutes) of Tempest’s ultimate. This can help stop counter pushes where the other team tries to push right after a battle in which you used your ultimate, or even allow you to use two ultimates in one battle.
Counters
Tempest is countered by heroes like Pharoah and Hellbringer that can stay back from team battles and then use their ultimate from long range to stun Tempest and disable his ultimate right after he begins channeling it, or initiate first and kill Tempest before he can ult in a good spot. Spamming Pharoah’s Soul spell also works to get vision of Tempest pre-battle and also hit him with damage to put his Portal Key on cooldown and prevent Tempest from blinking in. This also works with Thunderbringer and Sand Wraiths’ ultimates, and any other spells that can be used with good timing to damage Tempest right before he wants to blink in. You can also use silencing heroes like Vindicator or Defiler to break up Tempest’s ult.
It’s also good to gank and ward the jungle early game if you want to make it hard for Tempest to farm a Portal Key.
Tags: hero guide, HoN, tempest
