Frostburn Studios will be releasing patch 4.7.3 for Heroes of Newerth, which brings with it major changes for the game. However, this will be the last major patch for the game.
Frostburn Studios has revealed that future patches for the game will mainly consist of small bugfixes or balance changes. The company also mentioned that as a tribute for the hard work done by certain staff members, there have been some updates to various item flavor tooltips as a way to thank them.
This reveal does not come as a surprise for those familiar with MOBA games. HoN was one of the first MOBA games, with its beta version released in almost the same time as League of Legends. Initially, HoN required payment before becoming free-to-play in 2011. HoN and LoL were originally toe-to-toe before Dota 2 entered the scene and relegated HoN to third place. While Dota 2 and LoL continued to get new players, HoN had trouble retaining players. This was especially noticable in the West.
Looking at the upcoming patch, there is no question that it does bring major changes. The gold bounty for example was lowered by 20 percent. There are also tweaks to the map. Each base now has an additional three buildings, resulting in seven extra base buildings. The reason for this change is to slow down the push being done by the upgraded trees.
Additionally, the whole upper-left area of the game’s map has now been filled with trees. This is to lower the number of approach options the Legion has against the Hellbourne, especially when ganking in the top lane. There are other changes done to the map that, according to developers, should “lead to less areas with mass juking.”
The full notes of the patch can be accessed here.
