Click Here for an explanation of the Blood Hunter's Spells and Special Abilities!
Heroes of Newerth is a fun game, but it’s a lot more fun if you have an idea of what character to pick and especially how to skill the character out, and what kind of items to buy for your character. So this is overidon.com’s first guide on how to play the Blood Hunter.
The Blood Hunter is a fast melee, agility based hero that has cool abilities. Here’s a link on where you can find out detailed information on the Blood Hunter’s spells and abilities. But so you can quickly start playing with the Blood Hunter, I’m going to give you a breakdown on what to level up and what to buy. First when you start a standard 5 vs. 5 game you should put your first skill point into Blood Crazy. This skill silences a friendly or enemy target and it also damages it a bit per second, while increasing the targets base damage. As you level this skill it will increase in effect duration and base damage bonus but the amount of magic damage will go down. Use this skill to hurt and silence casters in the game early on. Later in the game you will use it to really help out your teammates by silencing enemies so they can’t use their skills/spells. This will practically make casters useless for the few seconds that they are silenced. But be warned as you level up this skill the damage bonus can go up to 80% bonus base damage and if you cast this on a tank it can make them uber strong. I use Blood Crazy after it’s level 3 on myself when I’m fighting creeps. It makes farming creeps really easy.
So right when you first start put 1 point into Blood Crazy and then buy 1.5 fortified bracers from the item shop. These items are located under the “Initiation” section of the item shop. This means get two pairs of the +3 strength gauntlets and one of those crowns of the pretender that gives +2 all stats. I also recommend getting those runes of blight that let you eat a tree for Health Points (HP) regeneration. After that pick a lane and start to get some exp. Be wary of fighting other heroes early on because your attack isn’t that great. I suggest using your Blood Crazy skill to damage enemies and silence casters early game. Then after you level up get the feast ability. This will let you get extra HP every time you kill a creep monster and an even greater amount of HP if you kill an enemy hero. After you have some money go back to base and finish the 2 Fortified bracers by getting 2 scrolls of the fortified bracers and 1 pretender’s crown. Now you should have 2 fortified bracers that boost your HP and other stats. If you have more money you should start to build your Enhanced Marchers. These are really good boots that are available again from the initiation shop. But at this point you will probably only have enough money to buy the basic boots called “Marchers” for 500 gold. They are good. You get 50% bonus run speed. Next get the other pieces to the Enhanced Marchers. These will give you increased attack speed which is key for the Blood Hunter. Also you can click on the boots to activate their special phased ability which gives you increased run speed for a short duration.
Now get back in the fight and level up and/or assist your allies in taking down some enemy heroes. As you level to 5 keep putting points into Blood Crazy and Feast. Once you hit level 6 put 1 point into Hemorrhage. This skill is important because you can really use it to perturb enemies. How it works is, once you cast the Hemorrhage you pick a target that is pretty far away if you want. Make sure the target is moving. Once the Hemorrhage attack hits the enemy hero will take magic damage. Then as the enemy tries to run away he/she will drain blood and take serious damage for every step that the enemy hero takes. They only way the enemy can stop the bleeding is if they stand still. So this skill is used best when you have your enemy on the run. Or else if you have friends attack the target while they are standing still trying to avoid from bleeding to death. Once you have enough money go back to the shop and finish the Steam Boots recipe by buying the Bolstering Armband and the Steam Boots Recipe. You’ll have to make sure that all the items are either in your stash or in your current inventory for the recipe to activate and combine all the items. Once complete your Steam Boots you will get extra bonus to your attack speed and 65% bonus to your run speed. And don’t forget to switch your boots from strength to agility by left clicking on them.
At this point you will be about level 6 to 8 and you will be able to start putting points into Blood Sense. This ability is passive and it is really cool. When an enemy is below 40% health and they are somewhat near you, your wings will start to pop out and they will glow red. At this time look around your screen and minimap for a reddish dot. If you see a red dot on the screen in an area that you normally wouldn’t be able to see because of Fog of War. (Fog of War is the darkened areas on the map that your character can’t see because it’s out of your visible sight range) This reddish dot is an enemy that is below 40% health. Depending on what level your Blood Sense skill is, you will be granted extra movement speed and you should be able to catch up to the enemy hero. So whenever your wings pop out and you start flying around be on the lookout for weakened enemy heroes. But be warned, just because there is an enemy hero that’s less than 40% health nearby, that doesn’t mean that it is a good idea for you to attack. Sometimes you will be too weak to attack, or other times the enemy hero will be more than capable of killing you even tho they are weak. You will have to gauge each situation carefully, and it is best to coordinate your attacks with your teammates. I think Blood Sense works best when your teammates are fighting and they weaken an enemy but the enemy starts to run away. Your Blood Sense kicks in and you chase the enemy down and finish the target. Remember, if you get the kill you will be rewarded with extra HP depending on how high of level your Feast skill is. If your Feast skill is at level 4 you will get 40% the total MAX HP of the target hero if you get the last hit and the registered hero kill. This can make the Blood Hunter a Hero Killing machine if you have the right gear.
Talking about gear, let’s go over what items are good for the Blood Hunter mid and late game. Since you are an agility hero I think the Blood Hunter can really use the “Slash” weapon from the initiation shop. This weapon is cheap to make and it adds to both movement and attack speed as well as agility. After that you have a choice. You can either try and build the Wingbow, which adds a ton of evasion and gives bonus to agility and attack speed; or you can build the Mock of Brilliance, which gives you a damaging aura that hurts nearby enemies. I personally have only tried the Mock of Brilliance once and it was pretty cool. It shows a glowing animation on the enemies that are getting seared by your aura. But the Wingbow gives agility and damage. And since the Blood Hunter is an agility hero it converts to extra damage.
So late game you should be strong enough to solo against enemy towers or else support your team in larger battles. What I mean by soloing towers is that you can cast your level 4 Blood Crazy spell on yourself for 80% bonus damage and attack enemy creeps and push all the way to a tower. Once you get to the tower gauge how much health you have and if you are half health or lower start attacking creeps to get your health back but if you have enough HP then keep hitting the Defense Tower hard. This way you can use the Blood Hunter as a strategic character that will force the enemy to pull away from their attacks on the main fighting group and have to deal with your attacks on their towers. So be mindful of your minimap. If enemies get to close use your Hemorrhage Ultimate Skill and run away and if they follow you they will take damage. Some final tips for the Blood Hunter is to communicate well with your team, and in team battle situations use your Blood Crazy spell as a silence ability. This will make your teammates happy. Remember to silence enemy casters like Thunder Bringer or Succubus with your silence ability. Also the Blood Hunter is good against other creeps on the map that aren’t just in the lanes, so if you get behind in levels from dying too much you can always turn Bloody Crazy on yourself and solo some creeps in the forest.
Well that wraps up this Heroes of Newerth Blood Hunter Hero Guide! I hope you enjoyed it and don’t forget to check back at www.overidon.com for more info on Heroes of Newerth and other fun stuff. Here’s a link to some good item guides and forums for Heroes of Newerth that you may find interesting. Have fun!