• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.

End of a MOBA Era: Heroes of Newerth ending content updates with final patch today.

chaobreaker

chaobreaker

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,541
https://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/...-Reverts-amp-Mass-Long-term-Stability-Balance

- At this moment in time, patch 4.7.3 is planned to be the final patch that contains major content and major changes.

- Future HoN patches will generally consist of a small amount of balance changes and/or bugfixes, if they are deemed necessary.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

A nearly 9 year run with the majority of that having to battle with other MOBA juggernauts like LoL & Dota 2, the massive market of engaging online F2P games, and the current boom of the Battle Royale genre. No confirmation of how long the servers might last after that.

Never played the game but much respect for lasting as long as it did. Apparently it still gets a decent playercount on SEA.
 
Moobabe

Moobabe

Member
Nov 7, 2017
917
Oh wow. This was my first MOBA, sad to see it go but it had a pretty good run in the face of genre juggernauts.
 
JMTHEFOX

JMTHEFOX

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
888
Brooklyn, NY
Legit surprised that HoN was still running, I thought that the game was completely dead even before Garena bought the development rights in 2015.
 
Fliesen

Fliesen

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,253
Moobabe said:
Oh wow. This was my first MOBA, sad to see it go but it had a pretty good run in the face of genre juggernauts.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It was neat, initially being basically a clone of WC3 Dota with better graphics and less janky mechanics (due to not being restricted to the WC3 map editor)

Whenever they tried to add something 'of their own', like new Heroes or map changes, they felt super imbalanced and not well thought out, though.

HoN's huge data breach also compromised loads of people's emails and passwords, which sucked.
 
Com_Raven

Com_Raven

Brand Manager
Verified
Oct 27, 2017
1,103
Europa
Oh wow, seeing that Homepage and patch notes in color coded text on a forum sure is a blast from the past. Either my mind is playing tricks on me, or it look pretty much the same has 5 years ago, when I probably last read anything about HoN oO
 
Napalm_Frank

Napalm_Frank

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
5,731
Finland
HoN will always remain one of my favourite games of all time and de facto DotA2 of it's early life. Absolutely obsessed with the game during the beta until little after launch.

Rip in peace.
 
Grahf

Grahf

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,664
Played DotA for years, then jumped ship when HoN was released, spent some quality years here.
DotA 2 arrived, tried to like it but the game was just too fucking slow, so I went back to HoN.
Haven't played it for 3-4 years but I'll mourn it all the same, it was the best DotA adaptation.
 
strudelkuchen

strudelkuchen

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,073
The last DotA patch 6.83d released in mid of 2015 which means it was supported for ~13 years and is ~17 years old today.
HoN is ~9 years old today.
Dota 2 is ~8 years old today.

I was there for all of it, and now feel very old.
 
Last edited:
Chasing

Chasing

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
10,687
Man I remember this and LoL being the two big ones for years before Dota2 wanted a piece of the action and came in on the scene. End of an era indeed.
 
EloKa

EloKa

GSP
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
1,906
febLey said:
Same, I've played it when it was in Beta.
I switched to Dota 2 later.

EDIT: Wohoo, found my account stats: https://www.heroesofnewerth.com/playerstats/ranked/febLey

I'm getting a bit nostalgic for it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I know a lot of people who went the full circle with MOBAs:
Dota1 -> HON (because it was amazing at its time) -> LOL -> back to Dota2 as soon as they got invited to the beta.

You made me search for my old HON profile and it seems that I've climbed to a 51% winrate with the last game some years ago.
Having a positive W/R for forever isn't that bad I guess. (better than in dota)
 
HylianSeven

HylianSeven

Shin Megami TC - Community Resetter
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,036
Tharp said:
Even some of the devs were toxic. I remember one of the devs on the forums pretty much telling a player he deserved the toxicity he was receiving because he was trash at the game.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That and pretty sure a Dev dropped an n-bomb in game at some point too.

I played it briefly before Dota 2 came out .. Mainly in attempt to prepare for Dota 2, and learned nothing until I actually played Dota 2. It was a very toxic community to the point where Dota 2 is nothing compared to it. I also couldn't visually make heads or tails of it. It was too dark and all the spells were a mess. Dota 2 I can easily identify what's going on in a teamfight. In HoN, not a clue for the most part.
 
Ferrio

Ferrio

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,053
I was a Dota 1 player that tried to transition to this. Played a bit, but the visual clarity was awful. Couldn't make out shit even though I knew every single character and spell from the game. Dota 2 really did a number on it, I'm surprised it lasted this long.
 
Piston

Piston

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,157
la_briola said:
The last DotA patch 6.83d released in mid of 2015 which means it was supported for ~13 years and is ~17 years old today.
HoN is ~9 years old today.
Dota 2 is ~8 years old today.

I was there for all of it, and now feel very old.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Dota 2 came out at least three years after HoN as far as I remember. HoN had a big hold on the market for a few years before Dota 2 came out and ate its lunch. It was the original competition with League.
 
Dreavus

Dreavus

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Jan 12, 2018
1,728
Yup, this game was great coming from Dota1. LoL really ate it's lunch in regards to their decision to do F2P (HoN was buy to play for a long time IIRC). Their business model made more sense to me, but hurt them when building an audience.

I was a hold out for a while even when Dota 2 had a beta running around and then finally came out. Some of their heroes were fun to goof around with. Deadwood was a late favourite of mine. Such a cheesy mid hero but can still be so effective lol.
 

Deleted member 16849

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,167
The game was visually one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen. Also Maliken is a trash person.
 
Sargerus

Sargerus

▲ Legend ▲
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
20,834
HoN was alive? I'm sure i read news that the game died a few years ago.
 
ZeroX

ZeroX

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
21,266
Speed Force
Played HoN for like two years while waiting for DotA2. Was a really fun time. Met some cool people through that game. It was crazy how much of a step forward it had at the time (and even when DotA2 launched HoN still felt more responsive). Having a Mac version was also super useful. Could play the game at computer labs because Macs weren't locked down like the Windows PCs. Also Deadwood is a GOAT hero!

What a trip down memory lane.
 
Kalina76

Kalina76

Banned
Nov 20, 2018
81
I have 6000 games in hon, just can't get used to dota 2 because it feels way to slow whenever i try it.
Will love this game forever, and i still don't know how they got Samuel L Jackson


Welcome to Newerth Motherf*****.
 

Bossman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
68
Just checked what the devs were doing and looks like the company was closed last year, sad times. Oh well, it's not surprising since Strife, their HoN successor, was a big failure.
 
Nome

Nome

Designer / Self-requested ban
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,312
NYC
Ah, the game that launched my career.
RIP in pepperonis.
 
Strings

Strings

Member
Oct 27, 2017
31,385
... I thought HoN died years ago. I played it briefly back in... 2010? It was better than LoL back then.
 

Deleted member 2840

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,400
Man they screwed the release SO fucking hard.

For DotA fans at the time, HoN WAS DOTA 2. The beta was amazing.

Then they had the brilliant idea of charging 40 freaking bucks for the released game. LoL already existed at the time, and DOTA 2 was looming(although no one knew how its monetization would work).
By the time they tried to fix their screw-up it was already too late. LoL was already solidified as an alternative, and DOTA 2's closed beta kept growing and growing.

RIP. HoN. Even with all your problems, I still had a lot of fun with you.
 
spootime

spootime

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
3,429
In an alternate universe, HoN is the most popular game in the world and League is a forgotten, failed moba.

Seriously, it had everything going for it. Great gameplay, great heroes, great items. I loved how quick the turn speed was in HoN. Such a small mechanical change that made the entire game flow so well. The only weakness was the the terrible monetization. At that time F2P wasn't a proven strategy, so I can't blame them for being not being visionaries.

If there's one thing that I'll remember about HoN, it was the incredible toxicity of the playerbase. Do you think you get mad in overwatch? You don't know true rage until you're one second away from dying in a 1v1 mid when the asshole pauses the game and his entire 5-stack starts spamming glowing colored ASCII pictures of a trash can. The game finally unpauses, you die, and you're greeted with a "SMACKDOWN" at 300% volume.

In all seriousness, this game was just so much fucking fun when I was in high school. It really was DotA 2 before DotA 2 - all my friends moved from casual pub DotA 2 and IHL pugs right into HoN and grinded hard as hell. My one friend had the "chill parents" and every single weekend all five of us would go over to his house, set up our LAN, and play HoN for 10 hours straight two days in a row. It's been almost a decade and I can still remember those individual games with Witch Hunter mid.


Nome said:
I remember the ideation process for this hero.
"What if he just has Falcon Punch"
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Nome, Nomad is still one of the most fun heroes I've ever played in a Moba. Thanks for all the memories.
 
Stiler

Stiler

Avenger
Oct 29, 2017
6,659
I loved this game, it's what got me into MOBA games before I eventually started to switch to league. I still preferred some things in it over league though and was astonished at how long it took other moba's to use that, like it's "leaver" system (so if someone left early you could leave and not have to play an unfair game for an hour or so).

Also remember many of the heroes fondly, loved playing Nova, Puppetmaster, and the eagle guy (his ult, at least back then, was amazing). As well the ability to "cut" through the jungle part of the map by knocking down trees made for some great tactics too that even league doesn't have (rather they worke don flashes and things).

I haven't played HoN in many years but it'll always be a game that I look back on fondly of all the games I've ever played, hope the developers go on to make more great games.
 
H4zeVentura

H4zeVentura

Alt-Account
Banned
Dec 28, 2018
111
NO! NO! GOD! NO! *insert Michael GIF*

It's the only MOBA I still Play from time to time. I started while it still was in Beta and never stopped playing it since.
This really makes me sad, like for real, not just as a saying.
 
Bitmap Frogs

Bitmap Frogs

Banned
Sep 16, 2018
705
Such a shame... This was DotA 2 for many of us before the actual DotA 2 hahaha.

They got steamrolled by the f2p train.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.