Swiftblade

Swiftblade is a melee Agility hero in Heroes of Newerth based on DotA’s Juggernaut.   Swiftblade has one of the strongest lane presences of any Agility hero early game, with a dangerous combination of a magic damage/immunity spin and hero-killing ultimate, and can also carry late game with a good critical strike.  Here are the abilities:

Blade Frenzy (q)

Swiftblade spins with his blades out, dealing magic damage to units around him while remaining immune to magic damage himself.  This is great for killing enemy heroes early game, so long as you can get close enough to them, and stay close enough to them during the duration of the spell.  This is also a good way to avoid nasty stuns and other magic damage with a timely activation.

You can also attack at a reduced speed during Level 4 Blade Frenzy, which is good to do extra damage against a hero that is not moving (otherwise they might get away), or if you have a lot of slows and movement speed advantage (like Frostburn + Ghost Marchers).

Counter Attack (passive)

Counter Attack gives a chance for Swiftblade to hit back on any ranged or melee attack that hits him. The damage done is proportional to Swiftblade’s damage, so this improves as the game goes on and Swiftblade picks up more items.

Way of the Sword (passive)

Way of the sword is a Critical Strike; it gives a chance for 2X damage on any attack.  This also works during Swiftblade’s ultimate to deal more damage.  This becomes really powerful when Swiftblade has picked up attack speed and damage items.

Swift Slashes (ultimate) (r)

Swift Slashes does damage to random units in a small area around a first targeted unit.  This means if only one hero is in the area, it does all the damage to him, so this works worse and worse as more and more units are around.  This damage is distributed in 3/5/8 bursts depending on the level, and if Swiftblade’s attack speed is fast enough he can attack in between these bursts as well.  Swiftblade can crit strike from Way of the Sword like normal on these attacks and applies any other attack effects like attack modifiers or cleaving damage from Runed Axe.

Strategy

Recommended Skill Build

1. Blade Frenzy (1)
2. Stats
3. Blade Frenzy (2)
4. Stats
5. Blade Frenzy (3)
6. Swift Slashes (1)
7. Blade Frenzy (4)
8. Way of the Sword (1)
9. Way of the Sword (2)
10. Way of the Sword (3)
11. Swift Slashes (2)
12. Way of the Sword (4)
13. Counter Attack (1)
14. Counter Attack (2)
15. Counter Attack (3)
16. Swift Slashes (3)
17. Counter Attack (4)
18. Stats -> Level 25

Explanation: Blade Frenzy gets maxed first to get kills early game.  Stats are desirable at Level 2 and even at Level 4 to get enough mana capacity (310 needed) to cast both Blade Frenzy and Swift Slashes at Level 6.  Way of the Sword really helps your ultimate damage and your attack in general so we get this next.  Counter Attack doesn’t do much till late game so hold off on that.

Early Game

Recommended Early Game items:

+ +

Logger’s Hatchet + Ghost Marchers + Sustainer

An Iron Shield can help you farm early game too, if needed.

Early game you should lane with a ranged hero like Glacius, Plague Rider, or Demented Shaman who can slow or stun heroes for you to kill with Blade Frenzy.

Mid Game

Recommended Mid Game items:

+

Runed Axe + Frostburn

Mid game you should be farming and occasionally killing heroes when your ultimate is up.  Look for enemies that are isolated away from the creep wave and allied heroes so that you can kill them quickly with your ultimate.

Late Game

Recommended Late Game items:

+

Abyssal Skull + Wingbow

Another decent item on Swiftblade is Charged Hammer.  Any item that gives Swiftblade more attack damage and attack speed (indirectly or by adding Agility) improves his ultimate and his critical strike, which is what you want.  A Shrunken Head can be useful against teams with a lot of disable.

Counters

Disabling Swiftblade with a Hex or stun before he can use Blade Frenzy or use his ultimate is the easiest way to deal with him.  Some abilities like Devourer’s and Succubus’s ultimates can be used to disable Swiftblade while he is already spinning.  A great way to deal with a farmed Swiftblade late game is with a Void Talisman.  Activating this puts an immediate stop to Swift Slashes and prevents him from attacking you further.  Also, a Nullstone can prevent Swift Slashes from even casting, since it is a single-target ability.

Tags: hero guide, HoN, Swiftblade

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 at 2:37 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.