My current outlook on HON, and why I've changed

I've recently received a lot of messages regarding why I don't play HON as often and why I play CM MM and Mid Wars a lot. I've told people individually that have asked, but everyone should be aware.

I've been a loyal HON fan for 2 years now. The updated engine drastically improved the MOBA gameplay and made the game much more accessible. I also generally liked the choices and implementations that S2 has put forth. While HON is indeed an almost replica of DOTA, it was nice to see them add their own flair to the game.

However, the past couple of months of changes have slowly pushed me away from taking and playing HON seriously.

The first I should mention is the Early Access feature. Granting players access to a hero that others cannot afford (or chose not to buy) is completely unacceptable. S2 claimed that the goblin shop would be purely cosmetic, which I was completely fine with. However, having access to a hero that can counter others or cannot be countered without purchase has gone too far.

The second that truly broke my heart was the demolition of BP, SD and BD. F2P accounts now have to spend real money to play these games. With heroes now being only obtainable with coins, those game modes will be shelved for sure. A lot of people say "But Boston`, there are as many legacy players now as there were before, though. SD, BP and BD will still be playable." While that's true, in a month, a year, or more those legacy players will become more and more scarce. Within time AP will be the only played mode.

Another big change is the hero accessibility. Similar to the statement above, people have certain advantages in F2P now that can afford more. Legacy accounts will become scarce.

I also am disgusted that anyone off the street can become verified by playing 50 games for free. This is where people learn absolute basics, but then can be added to my verified only pool.

I really used to respect S2 since they were an indie company with their own ideas and creativity. After copying LoL's business model almost word for word, that magic just disappeared for me.

Another change that really pisses me off is the change to Neutral Creeps. I spent hours learning perfect pull timing and pull spots didn't know and they made a huge change to the leash time of neutrals and also the amount of stacks. I was taking support very seriously and this change devastated me.


As a result of the changes, I've decided not to support S2 anymore and not take the game seriously. I play no stat mid wars and CM as a form of relaxation. I also use HON as a filler between my other interests, rather than my main focus.

I used to enjoy the struggle and stress of NM games but I can't put my time and effort into a game and company whose direction of the game I don't agree with. People are such tryhards in NM and I just don't care enough anymore to challenge them.



That being said, I did not completely abandon HON. I will gladly join an NM game every once in awhile with my ABLE bros. Whenever I'm online I always invite others to play with me if they chose. I'll still be active, just in a different way.

I plan to start fresh in DOTA 2 and take the genre seriously again, unless of course they follow a similar business model to HON and LoL.

TLDR; S2's broken promises, change of direction, loss of originality, clear advantages to those that pay and copy of LoL business model has made me lose my interest in the game.

I will still play, but not in a serious way.

I will start with a clean slate when DOTA 2 is released.

Ill join you /b/rooooooo. Im not a fan of S2 balance team. They dont do that great of balancing. Icefrog balance stuff really well. Hell, he autobans heros that are imba from tourament mode because he knows you can't balance every hero to be usable as much as every other.

I agree with you, but only for the reason of Early Access heroes.

It's understandable that S2 has to make money somehow, but the direction they're going is not one I would like to follow.

There going all out with EA :/ 2 heros on it at all times. Limited alt avatars that suck ass.

Monkey king alt avatar is a re color.

The EA thing is SO aggravating.

Fuck S2, I'm done.

Let's hope Valve has a more stable business model. I'd be willing to pay like $5/month if they deliver constant updates and don't CHANGE THE DAMN MODEL 5 TIMES.

I think you are blowing this out of proportion. S2 is switching to the LoL model because it is more stable and sustainable. I know firsthand- I have a group of friends who chose LoL over HoN simply because they didn't have to pay for it. If Dota2/Icefrog are paying any attention to what's going on with LoL and HoN then I'm willing to bet Dota2 will be F2p, or at least more similar to LoL than HoN.

For all those who complain about being queued up with new players after 50 games: this has always been a possibility with less than 50 games, especially for anyone rated less than 1700. And those who say f2p accounts are more likely to leave games, consider that the leaver cutoff is 5%. Out of 50 games, that means these new players can only leave 2.5 games...a perfectly acceptable leave rate. The only argument here is that somehow players who were new before f2p are somehow better than players who are new after f2p, simply because they paid 25 bucks or whatever, but I don't think anyone is taking that argument seriously.

People also seem upset that they changed small things like pull timers and terrain. But I think they are complaining just to complain. Those changes were made to make the game more balanced by preventing the jungle layout of legion/hellbourne from giving them a distinct advantage. IMO a serious player should celebrate those changes. Besides, the new pull and stack times take like 5m to learn. I already know all the basics and most of the advanced double/triple camp stack moves, and that's just by playing regular games, not even watching instruction vids.

Finally, the only decent complaint I've heard about EA is that it allows players to buy and use heroes before players that don't buy. But it's not a big deal, especially for players like us who don't do competitive play. I generally don't play new heroes anyway since that's what everyone is playing and it's cheesy, but even if I wanted to and couldn't it wouldn't matter balance wise because there are so many HoN heroes that access to 1 out of 100 is not a big deal. The only problem is if S2 mistakenly releases a hero that's OP (as they occasionally do), but you know a nerf is coming and until then just play modes that allow banning (like most people do now instead of risking the other team getting the hero in AP or something).

Anyway the jury is still out on dota2. I plan on going wherever the majority of the playerbase and competitive scene is. If that's dota2 like most people say, then dota2 it is, though it's still to early to tell.

i agree with phyrio but one thing i really do not like is the free courier in the latest patch. there is absolutely no reason for it (my opinion of course).