HoN Thunderbringer Hero Guide

Thunderbringer

Thunderbringer is a ranged Intelligence hero in Heroes of Newerth.  Identical to Dota’s Zeus, he is an all-out nuking hero killer with an ultimate that hits enemies on any part of the map.  And thanks to his Lightning Rod ability, which scales directly with increasing hit points throughout the game, Thunderbringer does not peak early like other nuking Int heroes and remains relevant late into the game.  Because of this he is always one of the highest overall damage-outputting heroes in every match.  Here is a look at his abilities:

Chain Lightning (q)

Chain Lightning is a low damage, low manacost spell that bounces between many targets.  The main use for this, early in the match, is to get last hits on creeps while simultaneously harassing the enemy heroes in your lane.  This makes up considerably for Thunderbringer’s short-range, low damage attack, which also has a lousy animation and makes last hitting quite difficult against any skilled opponent.  Later in the game, Chain Lightning becomes invaluable as a way to continually proc your Lightning Rod passive to massively reduce enemy heroes’ hp in an AOE around you, as Chain Lightning can be spammed every TWO seconds with one of the lowest cooldowns of any spell in the game!

Blast of Lightning (w)

Blast of Lightning deals high magic damage to a single target and mini-stuns it.  This is a great way to drop heroes hit points quickly and get kills.  The cooldown is relatively short (only 7 seconds) so you can also use this once and walk alongside the target until it is up again in order to use it twice against one hero you are trying to kill.  This is a good way to take down beefier heroes provided you have the mana capacity.  Also consider that Blast of Lightning’s mini-stun can be used to cancel channeling abilities and enemy heroes’ teleportations.  In addition, Blast of Lightning reveals invisible units in an area around it for several seconds.  Either use this on a windwalking hero before they go invis to keep track of them, or on a nearby unit if they have already gone invis and you need to find them.  You can also use this to detect wards on the battlefield and clear them.

Lightning Rod (passive)

Lightning Rod procs additional damage (between 5-11% of enemy hit points based on level) to nearby enemy heroes every time Thunderbringer casts a spell.  Since the cooldown on Blast of Lightning and especially Chain Lightning are so short, this allows Thunderbringer to absolutely punish the health of the enemy team as long as he can stay alive and keep spamming in team battles.  Also consider that since Lightning Rod scales with hit points it is great into the late game when heroes have tanked up and have 2000 hp or more.  Every two seconds you can cast Chain Lightning which only does 130 damage, but the passive effect of Lightning Rod will add 220 more damage to all nearby enemy heroes every time.  This type of scaling allows Thunderbringer to remain very relevant in late game unlike many other Int heroes.

Lightning Storm (ultimate) (r)

Lightning Storm does a medium amount of magic damage to all visible enemy heroes.  Any invisible heroes will be revealed for several seconds but not damaged.  Using this ultimate is a great way to help your allies get kills in other lanes without having to leave your own (whether you killsteal them or get an assist is up to you).  You can also kill heroes that are getting away with very low health or prevent heroes like Behemoth or Magmus from blinking in on you with Portal Keys at the beginning of team fights.  Lightning Storm also gives you vision of all enemy heroes, so you can use it to check if the enemy team is killing Kongor or ganking your woods, etc.

Strategy

Recommended Skill Build

1. Chain Lightning
2. Lightning Rod
3. Blast of Lightning
4. Blast of Lightning
5. Blast of Lightning
6. Lightning Storm
7. Blast of Lightning
8. Lightning Rod
9. Lightning Rod
10. Lightning Rod
11. Lightning Storm
12. Chain Lightning
13. Chain Lightning
14. Chain Lightning
15. Stats
16. Lightning Storm
17. Stats -> Level 25

Explanation: At Level 1, we want a level of Chain Lightning to last hit creeps and simultaneously harass enemy heroes in our lane.  At Level 2, we grab Lightning Rod, which adds 5% of their hp in damage to nearby enemy heroes every time we cast a spell.  At the beginning of the game when enemy heroes have about 600 hit points this adds 30 damage to every nuke we use (23 after which correct for 25% natural magic resistance), which is better than (twice) the +15 (+12 corrected for magic resistance) damage against heroes we’d get for having a second level in Chain Lightning, and it also works when we cast our other spells.  At Level 3 we start maxxing out Blast of Lightning which will be our main hero killing spell and push this through to Level 7 when it is maxxed, grabbing our ultimate at Level 6 along the way.  At Level 7, unloading a quick combo of Level 1 Chain Lightning + Level 7 Blast of Lightning + Level 1 Chain Lightning + Level 1 Lightning Storm with our 1 Level of Lightning Rod included will deal (85+30) + (350+30) + (85+30) + (210+30) = 850 damage to any one target (613 after magic resistance reductions), which is more than enough to kill any Agility or Intelligence hero early in the game that you have been keeping harassed with Chain Lightning up to that point.

After Blast of Lightning is maxxed out, we max out Lightning Rod since it adds more total damage to enemy heroes than getting more levels of Chain Lightning, then finally max out Chain Lightning last.

Early Game

Recommended Early Game Items:

+ + +

Mana Potions + Bottle + Marchers + Fortified Bracelets

Mana Potions are a no-brainer, especially if you aren’t soloing mid and won’t be able to as easily refill a bottle to keep your mana supply healthy while spamming Chain Lightning for last hits and harass in your lane.  If you are soloing mid, then Bottle + Marchers are essential to control the runes and gank with early game.  A Fortified Bracelet will also help if things are getting scrappy and you’re taking a lot of heat.

Mid Game

Recommended Mid Game Items:

Ring of Sorcery

Thunderbringer needs to spam spells pretty much nonstop every battle to make use of Lightning Rod and drain enemy heroes hp as much as possible.  This means two things: he needs a larger mana pool, and he needs faster mana regeneration.  The best item for your buck to take care of this is Ring of Sorcery, which increases your mana pool by 300 and recovers about 200 mana a minute for a total cost of only 1700 gold.  There are plenty of other options that will increase your mana pool and regeneration if you dont want to/can’t get Ring of Sorcery (many leagues/tournaments limit it to one Ring per team).  Some of these possible choices are: Nome’s Wisdom, Stormspirit, Sacrifical Stone, and Null Stone.  Staff of the Master is a less favorable choice since it doesn’t give very much mana or any mana regen for it’s considerably massive price (4400), and improving your ultimate isn’t nearly as important as being able to spam spells nonstop in team battles to drain health with Lightning Rod.

You also might want to think about increasing your versatility with items like Enhanced Marchers or Portal Key.  These can make you a lot more aggressive of a hero killer if you are finding the money in the middle of the game.

Late Game

Recommended Late Game Items:

+

Kuldra’s Sheepstick + Behemoth’s Heart

Kuldra’s Sheepstick is the best late game item on Intelligence heroes and adds some much needed disable to Thunderbringer’s abilities.  The added mana regeneration, hit points, and Intelligence increase are all very welcome to Thunderbringer as well.  If the game goes really late then you might want to think about a Behemoth’s Heart.  You can’t go wrong with -15% skill cooldown and +30 cast speed on a hero that loves spamming, and the added hit points don’t hurt either.

Remember that in team battles your goal is to stay alive and keep spamming as long as possible.  You need to get close enough to enemy heroes to cast on them and make your Lightning Rod passive work on them, but not so close that they are able to focus you and take you out of the battle before you’ve unloaded massive damage.  Try to wait for them to commit to fighting other members of your team, or have your team initiate first, so that you can operate smoothly without getting focused by some turd on the other team.

Counters

The best way to deal with Thunderbringer is to grab a Mana Battery or Power Supply if you are laning against him early in the game.  This will give you a charge every time he spams Chain Lightning (which is a lot), allowing you to maintain your health and giving you mana to spam back at him.  Also make Bracers, Strength Steamboots, or whatever it takes to increase your hit points to keep him from nuking you to death early in the match.  Later in the game pick up a Shaman’s Headress or Barrier Idol and the amount of damage you take from him will decrease immensely.