The latest patch was mostly filled with bug fixes, but included one significant change to Homecoming Stones when used to teleport to a tower.
Version 2.0.27.1
-------------
- Fixed Homecoming Stone effects playing on Towers through fog
Version 2.0.27
-------------
- AFK players are no longer included in vote counts
- Added 6 account icons created by community member Popo`
- Added some new data to the Watch User interface
- Fixed some annoyances with the Topbar and Notifications
Fixed the following to prevent mod exploits:
- Blood Chalice
- Sacrificial Stone
- Balphagore's Hell on Newerth
== Items ==
Flying Courier
- Returned the visual effects when the Flying Courier used its Q and W
Health Potion
- Fixed so it won't affect siege units
Homecoming Stone
- Now disarms the tower you teleport into for 3 seconds (begins at the start of the channel)
- Adds an additional 3 seconds to the disarm for every additional teleport while it is still disarmed
* First disarms for 3s total, length of the channel
* Second disarms for 6s total, 3s seconds past channel
* Third disarms for 9s total, 6s seconds past channel, etc
Mana Potion
- Fixed so it won't affect siege units
Mock of Brilliance
- Fixed it showing the glow only when it is 'on' and not 'off'
== Heroes ==
- Added new Gold Collection Alt Avatar: Forsaken Strider (Available until Friday, May 6th)
Accursed
- Fix his attacks playing an impact sound correctly
Aluna
- Fixed Emerald Red from not getting max charges regenerated when she levels it
Engineer
- Fixed one of the mine states showing for 1 frame
- Turret now deals Magic damage
Fayde
- Tweaked Reflection's stealth attack so it uses the correct impact and works with attack items
Flint Beastwood
- Fixed Flare initial damage so it breaks things like Sleep and can stack between different Flints
Forsaken Archer
- Fixed an exploit where if you toggled Call of the Damned on the same frame as your projectile is killing a unit, then you would get 1 skeleton spawned while building up a charge at the same time
Glacius
- Fixed units animating correctly after the freeze ends
Gladiator
- Fixed interaction between Pitfall and Nomad's Edge Counter
Kraken
- Fixed Release the Kraken! interaction with Bubbles' Take Cover and Nomad's Edge Counter
Legionnaire
- Made Terrifying Charge shift-queuable with Taunt
- Made the Terrifying Charge axe-swing animation play
- Also fixed his Terrifying Charge animation to change properly when he kills a unit & no other valid targets are around
- Also recalibrated his attack point & backswing & BAT while in Terrifying Charge mode so his attack comes out smoothly
Magmus
- Fixed Steam Bath from triggering Nomad's Edge Counter
Nomad
- Fixed "No retreat!" playing X times when X units are hit
- Also fixed Edge Counter from not proccing if the enemy hero is dead and his attack is in mid-air/continuous
Puppet Master
- Fixed Voodoo Puppet not giving assists
- Fixed Voodoo Puppet + Boom Dust crashing the game when the puppet/hero are hugging each other and Boom Dust procs
Rampage
- Fixed The Chains That Bind from making units temporarily unclickable if they were launched into the air when this skill affects them
Analysis from the Pros
The purpose of this Homecoming Stone change was to weaken a team's ability to mass teleport to and defend a tower. So far, it has received mixed reactions from the general community. We asked for the opinions of some professional players, and here's what they had to say.
[xFin] WAYTOOSEXY:
“I like the change. Myself, I'm a farmer, so the fact that the tower stops attacking for 3 seconds per TP enables me to farm the wave more! This change does not have much of an impact on the game, because if heroes are attempting to kill the tower, the 3 seconds that the tower stops attacking per TP does not matter. You will be running anyway and not tanking the tower because X amount of TPs are coming.”
[EHH] jaH`:
“It was a stupid change and isn't going to fix anything. That's what all the competitors told S2 in the private forum, but they didn't listen. It's pretty much a consensus that the change is worthless, and they should have just made the same TP change as DotA did.”
For reference, here is the DotA change to Scroll of Town Portal in v6.65:
- The casting time system for scroll teleports are now dynamic.
Whenever a hero teleports to an area, it causes any other teleports to that area to be delayed with extra time based on the number of heroes that teleported or are teleporting there. Each teleport leaves has memory lasts about 20 seconds for that location.
This does not affect teleports to the fountain area (it accounts for rough areas around shop area as well).
Example: First hero teleports to his tower, he takes the usual 3 seconds casting time. Then lets say the 3 other heroes teleport right after. The second one that teleports after the original has a 5 second teleport time. Then 6 seconds, 7, etc.
- Teleport location effect no longer lies to the enemies about the landing spot
- Enemies now see the colors of the teleporting heroes
- Increases max range on where you can choose teleport near a building from 350 to 525
- The color of the teleport effect changes if you are in delayed teleport mode. It goes to normal once you have the standard 3 seconds left. So both sides can tell if its a quick or a delayed teleport and time things accordingly.
What's your opinion on the recent Homecoming Stone change? How much will it affect the game? Do you prefer HoN's rework or DotA's rework? Give us your thoughts!
Links
forums.heroesofnewerth.com - 2.0.27 Patch Notes
