As I’ve posted many times on this blog, I’m a huge fan of DotA (Defense of the Ancients). It is only right that I suddenly become enamored with Heroes of Newerth (HoN), a game by S2Games currently in beta that matches the functionality of DotA and adds a layer of awesomeness on top.

I’ve played a number of games so far and have found one of my biggest hurdles is re-learning the heroes in HoN. Luckily, many of the heroes are simply ports of DotA heroes but learning who is who is also a slow process. Here are heroes in HoN with their DotA equivalents:

Quick Links

Legion: Agility | Intelligence | Strength

Hellbourne: Agility | Intelligence | Strength

Legion Agility Heroes

Back To Quick Links

HoN Hero		DotA Hero
Night Hound	=	Stealth Assassin
Swiftblade	=	Juggernaut
Magebane	=	Anti-Mage
Moon Queen	=	Moon Rider (Luna)
Valkyrie	=	Priestess of The Moon (Mirana)
Wildsoul	=	Lone Druid (Syllabear)
Scout	=	No Equivalent

Legion Intelligence Heroes

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HoN Hero		DotA Hero
Blacksmith	=	Ogre Magi
Thunderbringer	=	Lord of Olympia (Zeus)
Ophelia	=	Holy Knight (Chen)
Pollywog Priest	=	Rhasta
Pyromancer	=	Slayer (Lina Inverse)
Tempest	=	Enigma
Nymphora	=	No Equivalent
Zephyr (Owlman)	=	No Equivalent

Legion Strength Heroes

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HoN Hero		DotA Hero
Armadon	=	Bristleback
Behemoth	=	Earthshaker
Hammerstorm	=	Rogue Knight (Sven)
Jereziah	~=	Omniknight
Legionnaire	=	Axe
Pebbles	~=	Stone Giant (Tiny)
Keeper of the Forest	~=	Treant Protector
Predator	=	No Equivalent

Hellbourne Agility Heroes

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HoN Hero		DotA Hero
Chronos	=	Faceless Void
Slither	=	Venomancer
Blood Hunter	=	Bloodseeker
Soulstealer	=	Shadow Fiend
Arachna	=	No Equivalent
The Madman	=	No Equivalent
The Dark Lady	=	No Equivalent

Hellbourne Intelligence Heroes

Back To Quick Links

HoN Hero		DotA Hero
Defiler	=	Death Prophet (Krobelus)
Demented Shaman	=	Shadow Priest
Glacius	~=	Crystal Maiden
Hellbringer	~=	Warlock
Succubus	=	Bane Elemental
Torturer	~=	Tormented Soul (Leshrac)
Voodoo Jester	~=	Witch Doctor
Wretched Hag	=	Queen of Pain
Puppet Master	=	No Equivalent

Hellbourne Strength Heroes

Back To Quick Links

HoN Hero		DotA Hero
Accursed	=	Lord of Avernus (Abaddon)
Devourer	=	Butcher (Pudge)
Magmus	=	Sand King
Pharaoh	=	Clockwerk Goblin
Pestilence	=	Slithereen Guard (Slardar)
Warbeast	=	Lycanthrope
Electrician	=	No Equivalent
Kraken	=	No Equivalent

The site isn’t allowing open registration at the moment, but you can get on a waiting list…but you can get around some aspects of the waiting list as stated by the JamLegend FAQs:

How It Works

JamLegend is a Flash game with the number keys 1-5 (and function keys F1-F5) bound to their corresponding positions on the fret board. Like Guitar Hero, dots approach the bottom in time with the music and you must hold the appropriate number(s) in and strum. How? With the Enter key, of course!

You have two primary modes of play: Jam Style and Chill Style…shown here:

Playing the game can be odd depending on your keyboard. If you have a beefy enough keyboard where the function keys are evenly spaced (unlike one of my keyboards) you shouldn’t have much trouble with Jam Style.

My favorite method for play, however, has been using my Wii Guitar on my Mac thanks to DarwiinRemote. :D

The Music

The site’s slogan is “The free way to play the songs you love” is a little misleading. JamLegend is a new site with a small user base at the moment and little buy-in from big name stars. So…the appropriate slogan for now is “The free way to play the songs you will soon love because this site is freaking awesome”.

Are the songs bad? Definitely no. I hadn’t heard of any of the bands prior to playing around with JamLegend. Am I bummed that the songs aren’t from my favorite bands? No…I actually like a number of the artists. Blue Judy being one of my favorites – an Indie Rock Band from LA – and Double Stamp – another Indie Rock Band from Claremont, CA.

JamLegend does a nifty job displaying the songs that are currently popular (although this feature will become better as the user base grows), as well as bubbling new songs in front of your face. In addition to listing top songs, you can search and browse the site for specific genres, artists, and songs. Good times!

The Social Side

Similar to the Guitar Hero stat site that came with Guitar Hero III, JamLegend lists your bests, averages, global rankings, etc. You can add friends, challenge them to duels, or have massive guitar showdowns with large numbers of players. As an additional cool thing, you can earn groupies by completing Achievements. Groupies serve no real purpose at this time save for bragging rights but in the future that may change!

Where Its Heading

In its current state, JamLegend is a pretty ballsy free web application. There are some things coming down the pipe, however, that will make it that much cooler.

Music: If adoption of this game picks up, we could very easily see some larger named bands put their music out for play. Heck, the All American Rejects song Gives You Hell is pending track creation. Awesome.

More Instruments: JamLegend claims they are working on additional playable instruments! They are planning on adding keyboard, drums, bass, and (due to popular request)… cowbell.

Thoughts

This game will very easily become my mobile Guitar Hero fix (and soon to be Rock Band fix once the new instruments are implemented). The JamLegend site is gorgeous. The game is very well implemented. The music is good. I <3 it.

This first one is a quick 1-hour sketch of my character clad in some scale armor and pointing at something. I did a very rough coloring job on this guy, leaving all the lines visible. I really could have spent a LOT more time doing the coloring, but I did this while waiting for my character to show up in the first game. Overall I think it turned out ok for a quickie.

This next one will eventually hold the finished heads of all 5 player characters. I haven’t heard what each character looks like so I’ve only drawn and colored my character (in the middle). I look forward to finishing this puppy! Here it is thus far:

Both were drawn in Adobe Photoshop with my Wacom tablet.

Storyline

It has been twenty years since the events of Diablo II. Of those who faced the Lords of Hatred, Terror, and Destruction in the battle over the fate of Sanctuary, there are few still living who can bear to remember the horrors that the Prime Evils wrought upon the world. And of those who did not witness the terrible events firsthand, most believe the stories to be little more than myth. But something evil is stirring once again in Tristram, and it may already have claimed its first victim: Deckard Cain.

Character Classes

There will be 5 character classes in Diablo III and classes can be either male OR female.

The Barbarian

This old favorite is back! See the Barbarian page. Some skills that are definitely returning are: Cleave, Ground Stomp, Leap, and Whirlwind! Check the barbarian page for videos on these moves!

The Witch Doctor

Here’s the newbie! This guy seems pretty freaking sweet. Check the Witch Doctor page for more information. This class will feature spells such as: Firebomb, Horrify, Locust Swarm, Mass Confusion, and Soul Harvest.”

Video

Currently on the Diablo III site there are two trailers. Cinematic and Gameplay. I can’t find any version of the two in decent quality yet so I’ll have to post those puppies later. In the mean time, check the videos out on the Diablo III site!

Release Date

As with any Blizzard game during announcements…there is no release date announced. Meh. But that’s why we love it. They polish a game until it glistens beyond compare and THEN deliver it to the world. I just wish they’d wait to announce things until a day before it is released so I don’t have to drool for years on end :P

Blizzard has had a splash screen that changed daily for the past 5 days, today was its final day and I was extremely surprised to see that it revealed what has long been rumored…Diablo 3! This is exciting news!

The graphical announcement looks freaking awesome and I look forward to the link on the announcement to actually go to the Diablo site rather than a broken page! w000000t!

Minion NPCs happen to be the topic of this post.

So, I was reading through the Wizards forums and came upon a thread relating to the confusion with Minion NPCs in combat and how to explain their really weak stats. One of the questions that was posed asked how it made sense to have a level 14 Minion Cyclops that could feasibly drop in one hit while its fellow level 14 Standard Cyclops could withstand a much heavier beating.

One sage of a user, Morholdt, had this response which I buy in to totally:

So…that level 14 Minion Cyclops that I talked about earlier isn’t necessarily a slim, diminutive one-eyed brute that walks around with his fellow level 14 Standard Cyclops that his a hulking monstrosity with bulging biceps and a club that could fell an elephant in a single blow. Nope. The minion is the same as the level 14 Standard Cyclops…the Minion just makes a few mistakes on the battlefield that cause him his life much sooner.

If you haven’t read the Dungeon Master’s Guide for 4th Edition and don’t know what a “Minion” is, then here’s an excerpt on them from the DMG:

I know…any amount of damage doesn’t seem overly scary. However, each minion causes damage similar to a standard NPC of its type and level. Just because they fall quickly doesn’t make them easy to hit or prevent them from hitting you!

The Minion role in a combat encounter is one sexy addition to 4th Edition that will make for a much richer game!

As a former addict to World of Warcraft, I (and to some degree, my wife) could immediately relate with the characters and had us laughing throughout. The script is quality.

Here’s the first episode:

Episode 1

There are currently 3 episodes (with more in the making) and a gag reel. Check them out here:

• Episode 2
• Episode 3
• Gag Reel 1

I just found out from the official The Guild Site that episodes 4 and 5 just gained funding so those should be out at some point soon! w00t! I need to go donate :D

Firstly, we read an article on class development which focused on the Fighter Class. It appears that the whole talent trees that I discussed in my previous post work in a pretty sexy way for fighters! At first level, a fighter chooses a weapon type which basically ‘locks’ him/her into a certain weapon tree where he can gain specific talents with the given weapon. Kinda cool.

Secondly, DnDInsider, the subscription based community site that Wizards is launching is available for public beta testing so people can get a feel for what will be coming in the next year. As soon as the site is back up, I’ll be making an account and poking around there. Making an account is a good idea if you have any desire to be a 4th Edition play tester as they will be picking members sometime in the next 11 months from that community to do just that…play test!

Thirdly, here’s the 4th Edition presentation that was given at GenCon this year. Within the presentation, they demo a sweet new dungeon mapping toolset. Check it out:

I caught wind of this announcement that affects d20 role-players everywhere, the new version of Dungeons and Dragons is slotted for release in 2008! I look at my D&D v3.5 book collection and wince a little, yet I find myself a little excited for Wizards of the Coast’s next iteration of the eons old pen & paper table top game that has kept males occupied and single for decades.

My attempts to read the announcement from the horses mouth have failed due to the Wizards Announcement section of their site has thoroughly been slashdotted. As such, I have a few tidbits that I’ve grabbed from various Slashdot comments and other blogs that I’ll cobble together here:

Rustmonster writes:

ShakuUVM a commenter on Slashdot writes:

ShakuUVM seems to view the above in a negative light…I’m on the fence with the Saving Throw changes but the talent trees seems like an awesome change! Reading further in his comment, I see that feats ares still around in addition to the talents. If done right, this could feasibly reduce the complexity that has surrounded playing an odd-ball character that you want to hybridize in ways that only the Unearthed Arcana book could expose to you before.

It will be interesting to read more over the course of the next year. Sadly, I won’t be able to get my grubby paws on 4th Edition until May of 2008 when the Player’s Handbook is scheduled for release. The Monster Manual is due out in June and the Dungeon Master’s Guide will be released in July. So…die hard fans looking to play this as soon as possible won’t be able to play a solid game until those three books have been released.

Oh, another odd thing that is happening with this new Edition is a subscriber-based delivery of game content via a new Wizards of the Coast site: DnDInsider, which is basically a conglomeration of the Dungeons and Dragons magazines. Delivered through there will be tools, rules, and content available only to subscribers.

Interesting stuff.