Arachna

Arachna is a ranged Agility hero for the Hellbourne in Heroes of Newerth.  It is a hybrid of the two Dota heroes Drow and Viper; Arachna uses Drow’s damage aura and orb attack with modified versions of Viper’s magic armor ability and ultimate.  The result is something that plays almost exactly like Viper in Dota: a powerful lane-control hero early game as either a solo or as a babysitter for a carry hero.  Arachna is also a very strong ganker in the early to mid game and is a semi-carry late game.  Here is a closer look at Arachna’s abilities:

Webbed Shot (q)

Webbed Shot slows an enemy unit’s move and attack speed.  It can be autocasted or used manually.  By Level 3, it’s cooldown is low enough to smoothly orb-walk an enemy hero.  This means you cast Webbed Shot on them, move a little bit closer as soon as the animation goes off, then cast another Webbed Shot on them, move a little closer, and so on until they die (they cannot escape without a stun, blink, or other escape mechanism).  If you always use the hotkey (q) to cast Webbed Shot while orb-walking, you can dive towers to kill heroes without the tower or any enemy units targetting you (as long as you have allied creeps with you) because your attacks don’t register as attacks but as spells (see example below).

Arachna can safely dive this tower to attack Valkyrie since the enemy creeps and tower will focus his own creeps instead of him (though his creeps will be dead soon).

Webbed Shot makes Arachna a dominant solo, harasser, and ganker early game.  It costs very little mana, so use it generously early game to control your lane.

Harden Carapace (w)

Harden Carapace increases Arachna’s magic armor for a short time and removes any negative buffs that were on Arachna when it is activated.  This is a good way to get out of any paralyzing damage over time spells, especially slows that will prevent you from escaping.  Alternatively, use it in advance just for the magic armor if you know an Int hero is about to nuke you for a ton of magic damage.

Precision (passive) (aura)

Precision increases the attack damage of Arachna and nearby ranged units.  This ability helps Arachna with last hitting and killing heroes early game, and is what gives Arachna the ability to help carry late game.

Spider Sting (ultimate) (r)

Spider Sting sends a spiderling after the target unit, slowing its movement and attack speed, and damaging it over time for 5 attacks.  If it is attacked three times by enemy heroes it is destroyed.  Unlike Viper’s ultimate in Dota, Spider Sting also reveals invisible units, which makes it great for ganking heroes like Keeper of the Forest or Night Hound who would otherwise just go invisible and escape.

Strategy

Recommended Skill Build

1. Precision (1)
2. Webbed Shot (1)
3. Webbed Shot (2)
4. Harden Carapace (1)
5. Webbed Shot (3)
6. Spider Sting (1)
7. Precision (2)
8. Precision (3)
9. Precision (4)
10. Webbed Shot (4)
11. Spider Sting (2)
12. Harden Carapace (2)
13. Harden Carapace (3)
14. Harden Carapace (4)
15. Stats (1)
16. Spider Sting (3)
17. Stats -> Level 25

Explanation: Webbed Shot is useful as a slowing harass, but doesn’t have a low enough cooldown to smoothly orb-walk with until its third level, so we prioritize Precision for increased last-hitting and harassing damage at Levels 1.  At Level 5 we prioritize Webbed Shot and get it to the third level so we can orb-walk.  This way Arachna can get kills at Level 5 or 6 with Webbed Shot or with Webbed Shot and Spider Sting.  To deal with disables we get a level of Harden Carapace at Level 4 but if we’re against heroes with really nasty disables or damage over time spells like Vindicator or Glacius we may need to get a level of it even earlier.

Early Game

Recommended starting items:

+ + + +

Duck Boots + Pretender’s Crown + Minor Totem + Healing Potion + Runes of the Blight

Early game all you need to do is use the damage boost of precision to last hit creeps and harass enemy heroes in between with Webbed Shot and regular attacks.  At Level 5 Webbed Shot will be Level 3 and you can orb-walk enemy heroes for kills or wait till Level 6 and do so with the aid of your Spider Sting ultimate.

Mid Game

Recommended mid game items:

then or

Enhanced Marchers or Post Haste then Assassin’s Shroud or Geometer’s Bane

Mid game you should be ganking pretty hard.  Every time your ultimate is up you can use it to get a kill, then farm in the downtime.  Enhanced Marchers are great because they are super cheap, give a big boost to your damage, and help you quickly move around the map and chase down heroes in order to get them into your Webbed Shot and Spider Sting range.  Assassin’s Shroud is a good choice since it boosts your damage and lets you take ballsier ganks and be able to go invis and escape after you get the kill, or to sneak in close enough to a hero to initiate the gank with Webbed Shot and Spider Sting.  If the other team has heroes that counter Shroud like Pestilence or Rampage, then opt for a different item like Geometer’s Bane, which lets you pummel heroes with two images while they are slowed by your other abilities, and is also a great escape mechanism.  Other pure damage items can also work, like Shield Breaker or Savage Mace.

Late Game

Recommended late game items:

and and

Whispering Helm and Riftshards and Wingbow

Late game it is time to stop orb-walking and just autoattack since your attack speed will be high.    Whispering Helm gives you armor and lifesteal to duke it out in late game battles.  Riftshards massively boosts your damage output.  After this grab a Wingbow for evasion and more attack speed to complement Riftshard’s damage.

Counters

Any good Arachna will be harassing and orb-walking a lot, so be conscious of this and stay way back to avoid getting touched with Webbed Shot after Level 5 or you will be chased down and killed.  Arachna has no stuns however, so always carry a Homecoming Stone and you can teleport to base and survive any of his ganks as long as you do it right after he begins attacking you or throws his ultimate on you.  A lot of times you can save a teammate too by helping him attack the Spider so he can escape.

As with any Agility hero, Arachna has low hit points and is vulnerable early game to Intelligence nuking heroes like Thunderbringer.  Spam the hell out of Arachna and if you get caught in Webbed Shot and Spider Sting range then just teleport out or stand and fight, because running is hopeless but if you might be able to kill him with several nukes while he is killing you.

Tags: Arachna, hero guide, HoN

This entry was posted on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 3:22 AM 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.