Matchmaking Scoop

The latest Hon Patch (1.02) unfortunately switched from using the always fun Banning Draft (BD) mode back to the oppressively boring Banning Pick (BP) mode for Solo Matchmaking.  If you love seeing the same heroes and bans every game, wasting an extra three minutes before the game not playing but making these turds of picks, or otherwise having a terrible experience then you are stoked about this change.  Sure BP might be the best mode for competitive team tournaments, but Solo Matchmaking should use a different mode, and BD was working great for it!  Support BD or at least something other than BP for Solo Matchmaking on Hon Forums.

Something else that was changed: S2 added a maximum spread to the games so you don’t end up in games with people whose ratings are really different from yours.  Now games can take 10 or more minutes to start instead of 1-2, and no more steamrolling noobs .  Check out some players I was placed with one game in the old setting:

A 1300 along with two 1200s and two 1000s; the kind of epic garbage that makes KingRaven’s Chronos look good.  Dumping on pubs this bad is most of the reason my ranked stats are 16-1 right now, and damn that shit was fun.

Alas, even with competition this terribad Clan Milk International’s leader, Milkfat, still felt the need to stack the teams to swindle some wins.  Private Investigator and Solace wannabe “Zerak” dug up some great dirt showing Milkfat stacking teams with his goons who would either try really hard or intentionally feed the way to a Milkfat victory depending on which team they ended up on.  (It’s pretty easy to get in the same matchmaking game with people you know by hitting the search button at the same time, since it is a not a popular setting yet.)  Check out this tantalizing excerpt:

But then you start to notice that the same two players are repeatedly showing up in this guys Match Making games “MadFred” and “PanMan”. And in every game where they’re not on the same team as Milkfat they feed to a more or less obvious degree, from grabbing 4 homecoming stones at game start to repeatedly port out and run into the enemy tower. Or just standing still whenever getting ganked by Milkfat.

HoN Banning Draft (BD) Hero Picking and Bans Guide

Overview

Banning Draft (BD) is a new game mode in HoN where two captains first ban four picks from a pool of 24 random heroes, then alternate 10 picks from the remaining pool of 20 (in 1-2-2-2-2-1 fashion).  BD is generally regarded as the most balanced game mode available (least amount of luck involved), so the better team of players should win in this mode more than in any other mode.  This, of course, is only true if your captain makes the right picks and bans.  This process can be rather complicated, but if you understand the concepts of premium heroes and counters, it becomes simple to make the best possible choices.

Premium Heroes

It is important to understand that there are certain heroes in HoN that captains will try to first pick every single game.  These “premium” heroes are generally dominating AOE heroes that can turn the tide of any team battle.  In BD, the team that gets to ban the first hero also gets the first pick after bans.  If you don’t have the first pick, then realize that the other team will get one of these heroes with their first pick if you don’t ban it.  These heroes are (in rough order of importance): Tempest, Jereziah, Behemoth, Demented Shaman, and Magmus.

Second Bests

Here are some versatile heroes that are going to be in high demand after the premium choices are gone:

• Plague Rider: dominates team battles and ganking with a slowing, splash nuke and slowing, splash nuke ultimate, and gets a free deny and mana every time Extingiush is up.  Statistically the winningest hero in HoN.
• Pestilence: incredible ganking power with speed boost and stun abilities; dominant late game with a bash and armor-reducing, invis-revealing ultimate.
• Sand Wraith: dominant late-game carry with two escape mechanisms that make it extremely difficult to gank.
• Hellbringer: massive AOE ultimate stun that can break up any team formation.
• Magebane: another dominant late-game carry that is nearly impossible to gank.
• Puppet Master: versatile disabler carry that can fill many roles and has a crushing early game harass.

Counter Picks

Often it is okay to let the other team have a premium or other great hero if you know there is a counter pick in the pool that you can make directly afterward.  For example, if you have second pick, you can not ban Tempest, and then pick Hellbringer right after the other team gets it (Hellbringer’s ultimate stops Tempest’s ultimate, even if he has a Shrunken Head).  If they see this coming and don’t first pick Tempest, then you can pick Tempest and Hellbringer with your 2nd and 3rd pick, thus getting both the premium hero and it’s counter out of the pool in one picking round.  Here are some examples of good counters:

• Hellbringer, Pharoah counter Tempest (their ultimates stops Tempest’s ultimate from long range)
• Electrician counters Jeraziah, Hammerstorm (Electrician’s ultimate removes Protective Charm aka Repel and Hammerstorm’s ultimate)
• Vindicator counters Magmus, Tempest, Torturer, any channeling heroes (Vindicator’s ultimate silences all heroes)
• Pestilence, Rampage counter any heroes with invisibility (Pestilence’s ultimate exposes invisible heroes, Rampage’s Charge does as well)
• Thunderbringer counters heroes that initiate with blink (Behemoth, Tempest, Magmus, etc.) (must have good timing with ultimate and vision)

Other Guidelines

Make sure you pick a solo hero.  In general, don’t have more than one melee hero per lane.  Make sure you pick at least one carry hero and not too many.