Glossary

From HoNWiki

This is a glossary of terms commonly used in Heroes of Newerth.

Contents
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

[edit] A

AB

Auto-balance. The computer attempts to re-assign players to each team so that the overall skill levels of both sides are roughly equal to each other.

Aegis

A reference to the item in DotA called the Aegis of the Immortal, an item that gave the bearer a free resurrection. This item in HoN is the Token of Life and is dropped by Kongor

Agi, Agility

One of the three hero stats, Agility improves Attack Speed and Armor.

Aggro

Short for "aggression," referring to a state in which a creep sees and actively pursues a target. Aggro can be lost when the target moves beyond a certain range, or transfered by intercepting the creep with another target.

Ancient

A DotA term for the most powerful type of neutral creep, indicated by the red dot in each side's forest.

Ancient Stacking

See Neutral Stacking.

AOE

Area of Effect. The area that a spell will affect, for spells that don't target a single unit; also often used to describe the spell itself. For example, an AOE DoT is a Damage over Time debuff that affects all enemies in the area of effect.

AP, All Pick, All Heroes

A Game Mode that allows players to pick heroes from either team (Legion or Hellbourne). Normally, a player would be restricted to picking heroes from only the team on which they are playing.

AR

All Random, a Game Mode that randomly picks a hero for each player. The hero will be drawn from the set of all heroes, not just one side or the other.

Armor

The amount of armor that the hero has. This is based on the hero's innate armor value, plus any armor granted by items and stat gain (agility in particular).

AS, Attack Speed

The rate at which your hero attacks, in attacks per second.

[edit] B

Babysitting

To act like a “babysitter” in a lane, taking care of the Carry (or any other fragile, farm-dependent hero) that’s laning with you, healing him if possible and harassing any opponents.

B, Back

Retreat. Often used by players to indicate to their teammates that they are retreating.

Backdooring

Strictly speaking, teleporting into the enemy base (or blinking) for the purposes of destroying a specific target (tower or barracks). Generally speaking, it is taking out base defenses (towers or barracks) without an accompanying creep push. Backdooring is generally prohibited in tournament games. It is considered dishonorable by some.

Barracks, Rax

The structures in a base that serve as spawning locations for creeps. Barracks come in two varieties, Melee Barracks and Ranged Barracks, and a pair of barracks (one of each type) is located at each base entrance. Destroying an enemy barracks upgrades the corresponding creeps of your own team. For more information, see the Barracks wiki page. See also Super Creep and Mega Creep.

Base

Heavily defended area at each team's corner of the map. Typically has three entrances, one from each lane. Also has a regeneration area, a shop, six barracks (2 at each entrance), and a primary building. A base's defenses consist of several towers, one at each entrance and two next to the primary building.

Bash

Stun. An ability or item that confers a chance to stun on attack is often referred to as a bash ability or item. Examples would be Gore on Pestilence, Time Freeze on Chronos, or the Brutalizer weapon. Items/abilities with bash share a cooldown of 2 seconds.

Blink

An instant teleport ability. Used for closing distance quickly to initiate engagements and/or finish off fleeing enemies, or conversely for escaping unwanted engagements.

Bot, Bottom

The bottom lane of the map. See also Top and Middle.

Buff

An ability that temporarily boosts a target's attributes or abilities, such as damage, movement speed, etc.

Buildingwalking

Ability allows Hero to pass though builings on the map.

Burn

A synonym for ManaBurn.

Buy Back, BB

When you spend money to resurrect yourself before your resurrection timer is up.

[edit] C

Cannon Fodder

Refers to units that hinder/block enemy movement or take hits from the enemy units/tower. Typically it is units that are under the control of the hero that are sent in advance of an assault that will take the first hits from the tower, creep or enemy heroes.

Care

A warning from a teammate to be careful, usually due to one or more players on the other team being MIA.

Carry

A hero that becomes very strong in the lategame, allowing him to help carry his team to victory.

CC

A carryover from the MMORPG lexicon, CC stands for "crowd control". See Disable.

CD, Cooldown

The time it takes after casting a spell for it to become usable again.

Channeling

The time required for a spell to be fully cast. Interrupting the channeling with a disable will cause the spell cast to abort. Some channeled spells only have an effect after the channelling period (Homecoming Stone or Magmus's Eruption), others have an effect during the channel (Voodoo Jester's Spirit Ward or Moon Queen's Moon Finale). Channeled spells sometimes require the hero to remain immobile (the Spirit Ward), while others allow the hero to move (Moon Finale).

Cliffwalking

Ability allows Hero to pass through cliffs and rocky terrain on the map.

Creep

Generally refers to non-playable creatures that travels along each lane towards the enemy team's base, attacking any enemy units and structures they counter. They can be upgraded to Super Creeps and Mega Creeps by destroying enemy barracks. The exception is Neutral Creeps, which can be found in stationary camps at various locations in the forest.

Creep Pulling

The act of engaging neutral creeps and later running away, pulling them into a lane in order to draw your allied creeps' aggro and have them assist you in the fight.

Crit, Critical Hit

A hit that deals a significantly greater amount of damage than the attack usually does, indicated by displaying the damage in red text with an exclamation point at the end. Whether a hit ends up being critical is determined by the critical chance percentage, which can be modified by certain abilities.

CS

Creep Score, determined by the number of creeps you have last-hit.

[edit] D

Damage, Dmg

A loss of HP

Defend, Def

An indication that an ally believes that the team should defend the base or structure. Usually accompanied by a ping.

Deny

To destroy one of your own team's creeps or towers in order to prevent the other team from gaining gold or XP from it.

Disable, Disabler

Technically, a disable prevents all moving and casting. Generally it is used to refer to abilities that prevent movement or casting (stuns and silences). A Disabler is a hero that possesses a disable ability (for example the Electrician or Torturer).

DM, Deathmatch

A Game Mode where you get a new hero every time you die. You have a pool of heroes available to you. If your team runs out of heroes you lose (in addition to the standard game end condition).

Dot, Damage over time

Damage that occurs over a period of time

DotA

Defense of the Ancients, the WarCraft 3 map on which HoN is based.

DD

Double Damage. Also, if mentioned at the beginning of the match, it means "don't die".

DPS

Damage per second

DR

Dust, Dusting

Using Dust of Revelation, which reveals invisible enemy heroes around you for a short duration.

[edit] E

EM, Easy Mode

A game mode in which experience and gold gain are greatly increased. Also used in a derogatory fashion to refer to heroes a player believes are imbalanced.

Evasion

The chance to dodge an attack, taking no damage. See Evasion

Exclusive Modifier

Buffs that do not stack with buffs of the same type. See Exclusive modifier

Experience Points

See XP

[edit] F

Feed, Feeder, Feeding

Getting killed by an enemy hero, giving him a considerable amount of XP and Gold.

Farm, Farming

Killing enemy creeps for gold and XP.

FB

First Blood, a Gold bonus given to the first player to kill another hero.

Fend

See Defend.

FF

Forfeit, to forfeit the game. See also Concede. Can alternatively stand for "focus fire".

Fog of War

The dark parts of the map, representing areas that your team cannot see. The fog goes away as your team explore an area, but it returns when they leave. Enemy units in the fog of war are not visible on your screen or mini-map, although attacking temporarily removes the fog around the attacking unit's location. Buildings are visible through the fog of war since their positions are fixed.

Forest

The area outside the lanes.

FoV, Forests of Caldavar

The default map, closely based on the original map from DotA. It features three lanes, with the middle lane running diagonally across the map.

[edit] G

G2G

"Got to go."

Game Mode

The game mode determines how (or if) heroes are picked by players. Examples include All Random, All Heroes, Deathmatch, Normal, Random Draft, and Single Draft.

Gank

To kill a lone enemy hero, usually in a quick ambush. Typically a gank involves overwhelming odds, either by having several heroes or a higher level hero. A confrontation in a lane that results in a hero dying but that does not involve an ambush is not usually referred to as a gank.

GB

An acronym for "gangbang". When several enemy heroes ambush a lone hero. See also Gank.

GG

Good Game

GJ

"Good Job."

GLHF

"Good Luck, Have Fun."

Gold

The amount of money possessed by your hero. Gained at a constant rate during the match, gold is also earned for killing creeps, towers, and other heroes. Extra gold is awarded to the hero who landed the last hit.

[edit] H

Harass, Harassing

A component of lane control strategy where you use a spell with a low cooldown to continually do damage to the opposing heroes, causing them to retreat or risk death. The Thunderbringer's Blast of Lightning and Chain Lightning are good examples of harass abilities. Ranged heroes can also harass melee opponents by auto-attacking them when they attempt to last-hit or deny. Melee heroes are generally not as good at harassment as ranged heroes.

Hex

Generally referring to a disable, but more specifically a spell that transforms the target into a defenseless critter that can move very slowly and cannot cast. The two most common hexes are the Pollywog Priest's Morph spell and the active ability of the Kuldra's Sheepstick (this item is also referred to as a 'hex stick' because of this). The name comes from the Pollywog Priest's DotA counterpart hero "Rhasta", who's Morph spell was called "Hex".

Hero

A playable character. For a list of heroes and information on each, see Heroes.

HP, Hit Points

The health of the hero. When a hero takes damage from an attack, their HP will drop. If a hero's HP is reduced to zero, the hero dies.

[edit] I

IAS

Increased Attack Speed, provided by various items and abilities.

Imba, Imbalanced

Imba is short for 'imbalanced' and is used to indicate that a player thinks that a hero's powers are out of balance with the rest of the heroes. Particularly, that the hero is overbalanced (imba is never used to refer to a hero that is under-powered). This is a common thing to say as the hero powers are constantly in flux and a previously innocuous hero may rise to domination, at which point the hero will certainly be decried as 'imba'. This term is also often used in error by players who aren't very good and looking for an excuse.

In House

A game in which all players are from the same clan.

Instant

An ability that has no channeling time prior to effect. The ability triggers immediately when the player enacts it.

Int, Intelligence

One of three hero Attributes, it improves maximum MP and MP regeneration. See Intelligence

Invisibility, Invis

An ability or item that conceals your hero from the other team. See Invisibility

[edit] J

Juke, Juking

Juking is a component of tactics that exploits interrupting line of sight by moving through the forest. Hard to see lanes through the forest are referred to sometimes as "juking lanes". The foundation of juking relies on the fact that if you cannot see a hero, you cannot target them with a spell or ability.

Jungling

Avoiding the lanes and gaining experience and money from exclusively killing the neutral creep in the forest.

[edit] K

KD, KDR

The Kill to Death Ratio of a player. If someone is said to have a high KD, then their kill to death ratio is high. A winning team will sometimes delay ending a game to farm for a higher KD, this is unsportsmanlike and frowned upon.

Kongor

The most powerful neutral creep on the map, denoted by a large red dot on the minimap. Killing Kongor will cause him to drop a Token of Life and a substantial amount of gold for the team.

KS, Kill Steal

Killing an opposing hero just before another allied hero is going to. This is considered rude as you deprive the player of the recorded kill and the hero of the bounty gold. Apologizing for kill stealing is polite, even if you don't think you need to. We're looking at you Thunderbringer.

[edit] L

Lane

Each of the three paths that the opposing creep take are called lanes. They are referred to as the top lane (top), middle lane (mid), or bottom lane (bot). Sometimes you will hear them referred to as west, center, and east, but that is unusual. The river is not considered a lane, but connects the three lanes together.

Laning

The act of controlling the creep wave and heroes in your lane. Ideally, you should be able to last hit creep such that you keep the creep wave at a comfortable distance from your tower. Enough to escape to safety, but not close enough to deny yourself last hit opportunities. Harassment of the opposing heroes is also a component of effective laning.

Last Hit

Getting the final blow on a hero or creep before it dies. If the creep is an enemy, you get bonus money. If the creep is friendly, you deny the enemy XP. Last hitting an enemy hero gives you bonus money, and like creep kills, last hitting a friendly hero will deny XP to the opposing team. See Last-hit

Lategame

The last phase of a match, usually occurring roughly around 40 minutes after the game has started. Heroes will typically have an average level of 16 at this point with most or all of their skills fully leveled, and possess one or more expensive recipe items. Carries in particular become important at this stage. The lategame is characterized by frequent team fights and subsequent pushes.

Leaver

A player who leaves a disproportionate number of games before the match is over. Also, a player who abandons a match early.

Leech

Standing a safe distance from attacks and gaining experience without entering combat.

LVL, Level

The level of the hero or skill power. Increased by gaining XP.

Luna

The DotA counterpart of Moon Queen.

[edit] M

Mana Burn

An exclusive modifier that drains a unit's MP in the same way that normal attacks decrease HP.

MH, Maphack

A form of cheating that allows a player to remove the fog of war and reveal the entire map at once, giving him an unfair advantage.

Mega Creep

After all barracks are destroyed, the creep will be upgraded from super creep to mega creep. These creep are very powerful. It is difficult to lose when you have mega creep (though anything is possible).

Melee

Hand to hand combat, the opposite of "ranged". Melee heroes have an attack range of 100.

Melee Dance

Melee hero sitting behind creep waves and running forward to get last hits for gold and xp.

Mid, Middle

The middle lane on a map, most often running diagonally between the bases at each corner.

MIA, Miss, Missing

An indication that an enemy hero is in the fog of war and not visible to the team. It is polite to announce when a hero in your lane goes "mia" by saying "[hero name or color] mia" in chat if you notice that one of your lane opponents is not there.

MP, Mana Points, Mana Pool

A measure of the energy that is used up by spells. MP is replenished automatically over time.

MS, Move Speed

The speed at which a hero moves. In DotA typing -ms in the chat window would show your move speed, in HoN your move speed is listed next to your hero portrait.

[edit] N

Nerf

When a power or hero is made less powerful, it is said to have been 'nerfed'.

Neutral Creep

The creep that spawns in the forest. They do not move unless provoked. There are three grades of neutral creep, easy (yellow dots on the map), medium (orange), and hard (red). Kongor is a large red dot on the map.

Neutral Stacking

A tactic of pulling neutral creep away from where they spawn so that another group can spawn there. By doing this over and over, a skillful hero can have several spawns of neutral creep that he can kill simultaneously. This is most often done with Ancients in particular, usually using a controlled creep.

Neutraling

See Jungling

Newb, Noob, Newbie

An inexperienced player. Often used derogatorily.

No Leavers

A game mode that doesn't allow players with over 10% games leaves.

Noobs Allowed

A game that allows noob players, but doesn't disallow intermediate or expert players.

Noobs Only

A game option that flags the game as being open only to newer players. The host will typically kick intermediate or expert players.

Normal

A Game Mode that is used by default. Players may only choose heroes from the faction they are on (Legion or Hellbourne), picks are first come first serve, and no two players can choose the same hero.

Nuke, Nuker

A spell with relatively high damage, a direct targeting mechanism and without a Area of Effect. A Nuker is a hero that has one or more nukes. Thunderbringer is a good example of this.

[edit] O

OJ

Orange Juice - meaning orange colored player in-game.

OP

Overpowered. See imba.

Own, Owned, Owning

A carryover from the first person shooter game, "own" means to dominate. If a hero or team is winning by a large margin, that hero or team will be said to be "owning". A hero or team that is losing is being "owned".

[edit] P

Passive

A hero ability that is always on and does not require mana.

Phase Boots

The DotA equivalent of the Enhanced Marchers.

Ping

Clicking on the minimap to indicate a location of importance is called "pinging" the map. Pings are used to indicate locations that you intend to attack or gank, locations that should be defended, or locations that indicate a possible location of a hero in the fog of war. Pinging too many times is considered rude, one or two pings is sufficient.

Polly

Short for Pollywog Priest

Primary Stat

The main attribute for a hero. This will be either Int, Str or Agi. The primary stat will increase the hero's attack damage by one for each point (in addition to whatever other gains the stat normally gives).

Private

A private game, which players can join only by invitation.

Proc

Acronym for Programmed Random Occurrence. Refers to the triggering of an effect with a random chance of happening, such as the Chain Lightning modifier. The effect is said to "proc" when it is activated, and the event itself may be referred to as a proc as well.

PSR

Public Skill Rating. A rough estimation of your current skill level based on how many games you've won and lost, initially set at 1500. Other indicators of a player's skill are Kill/Death ratio, number of Assists, number of games played, and leaver percentage.

Pulling

Intentionally drawing aggro from a creep in order to lead it to a specific location.

Push, Pusher

Moving with your creep wave up a lane and trying to destroy a tower.

Pub, Pubbie

A public game, or the players in a public game.

Pubstomp

A pub stomp is when a clan or a group of people who play an e-sport competitively and usually only play clan wars or in house games decides to go into a public game to do some total owning of noobs.

[edit] Q

Quitter

A leaver who quits a game permanently. This is opposed to a leaver who may only disconnect many times during a game. If a quitter quits after a ganking or dying in a fight, he is said to have "ragequit".

[edit] R

Range

The distance to a target, or the maximum effect distance of a spell.

Ragequit

To quit a game after being killed.

Rax

See Barracks

RD, Random Draft

A Game Mode where everyone picks from the same randomly-chosen pool of heroes, but there is a specific order in which players choose a hero.

Recipe

A blueprint for creating certain recipe items; also often refers to the recipe items themselves. Recipe items are created by assembling two or more other items, and usually possess the combined properties of the items used along with additional stat increases or special abilities.

Regen

The regeneration rune. It can also refer to the mana or health regeneration of a hero in mana or health per second.

Re, Rematch

A request by a team to play another game with the same players subsequent to the current one.

Rhasta

The DotA equivalent of Pollywog Priest

Rm, Rmk, Remake

A request by a team to remake the game. This is usually because a player or players have quit or if one or more members of a team that should have been locked, have ended up on opposite sides of the game.

Roshan

The DotA equivalent of Kongor.

Rune

Runes spawn at one of two points in the river. Runes spawn every two minutes if there isn't already a rune present. The rune will be one of the following: Double Damage, Regeneration, Illusion, Haste, or Invisibility. See Runes.

Rune Whoring

Taking all of the runes that spawn in order to get a free bottle recharge.

[edit] S

Scepter

A reference to Aganihm's Scepter, known as Staff of the Master in HoN. It is a powerful recipe item that increases the effectiveness of many heroes' ultimates.

SD, Single Draft

A Game Mode that allows players to pick their hero from one of three heroes available exclusively to them. The heroes will each have a different primary stat (one int, one agi, one str).

Shuffle

A game mode that shuffles the players of a team before the hero choosing starts. This overrides locking players to a team.

Silence

A status effect inflicted by several spells and items on enemy heroes. It prevents them from using any spells for the duration.

Snare, Slow

Any effect which reduces movement speed, but allows the hero to cast (as opposed to a Disable)

Stash

A second inventory accessible from the base shop or fountain. Items you purchase while away from the base generally end up here.

Stone

See Homecoming Stone.

Str, Strength

One of three hero Attributes, Strength improves maximum HP and HP regeneration.

Super Creep

After a barracks is destroyed, creep in that lane will be more powerful. These creep are referred to as "super creep".

Support, Supporter

A hero that specializes in helping out other characters.

[edit] T

Tank

A hero that specializes in absorbing damage, directing it away from more vulnerable targets.

Team Fight

A battle involving most or all of the heroes from both teams. Team fights are usually anticipated and prepared for by both sides, as opposed to ganks.

Team Sell

All items from the leaver's hero are sold at half price and everybody from his team receive equal part of the money.

Throne

A DotA term referring to each faction's Primary Building. Its destruction ends the game. It is synonymous with "tree". In the original DotA, one side had a throne (the Hellbourne equivalent) and the other a tree (the equivalent for the Legion) that had to be destroyed for the opponents to win.

Top

The top lane

Tower

A structure that automatically launches projectile attacks against enemy units within range. Towers are located along each lane, at each base entrance, and next to the base's Primary Building.

Tower Diving

Running past an enemy tower to finish off a wounded hero who would otherwise escape.

Tower Hugging, Hug Tower

Staying under the protective cover of the tower.

TP, Town Portal

Previous name for the Homecoming Stone

Tree

See throne.

Treewalking

Ability allows Hero to pass through trees on the map.

[edit] U

Ulti, Ultimate

Generally a hero's most powerful skill. It is first available to upgrade at level 6, then 11, then 16. If the ultimate is not passive, it can be cast with 'R' by default.

Unitwalking

Ability allows Hero to pass though creeps and other heroes on the map.

[edit] V

[edit] W

Warding

Using wards (Ward of Revelation) to see invisible units.

Watch, Watchtower

The smaller third map for HoN.

[edit] X

XP, Experience Points

A measure of your current level of experience, gained by being in proximity when enemies are killed by your team. Represented by the purple circle around your hero portrait. Gaining a certain amount causes your hero to gain a level, with the required amount increasing with each level.

[edit] Y

[edit] Z

Zeus

Thunderbringer, the name for his DotA counterpart is Zeus.