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Pebbles and his Avalanche Skill

This is a guide on how to use Pebbles with a portal key in Heroes of Newerth (HON). Like my other HON guides. I am going to give detailed strategies and tactics. I will also tell you my recommendations for skill and item builds for this very fun hero. Pebbles is a what is called a burst damage attacker. This is because he can quickly dish out a tremendous amount of damage in a very short amount of time. This is different from a hero like, slither who relies heavily on his poisons and damage over long periods of time. When starting your game I recommend that you talk with your teammates and try and convince one of the intelligence heroes to purchase and share a courier. This way you can have some extra money for starting items. If you are fortunate enough to have a good team with generous players, and someone buys you a courier then the starting items are as follows. Get one 90 gold stack of Runes of the Blight (trees). This is good for healing. Then buy a shield or iron buckler (shield) for 250 gold. You can find this item in the “weapon” shop. Since you will eventually want to create a  Blood Chalice your next item should either be the Crushing Claws or Mark of the Novice for 150 gold. I recommend getting the Mark of the Novice because the extra mana from the intelligence will really help out early game when you are using your stun/toss attacks. With the remaining money you should get a couple minor totems. Minor totems are great because they are cheap and they give good stat bonus for early game. And remember, you can always sell them from anywhere on the map by holding shift and right-clicking the minor totems. You will get about 25 gold or so for selling them.

In case your teammates don’t purchase a courier and you are stuck with the responsibility of buying one, then use this item build. Since the courier is about 200 gold, you will only have around 400 or so left to buy items. So make sure to buy 1 stack of Runes of Blight for 90 gold. Then get the Crushing Claws that add +3 to strength and the Mark of the Novice that adds +3 to Intelligence. The reason for this is because the only item you will need after that to complete your Blood Chalice will be a trinket of restoration. And the cool thing is that you can buy a Trinket of Restoration at the outpost while you are laning. So make sure to get last hits and you will get the 350 gold necessary for the trinket very quickly. With the other money you have left over, you can see if you have enough money to get a minor totem. If not…then no worries.

The reason why the basic iron buckler or shield is good to get if you don’t have to purchase the courier is because it will protect you a little bit while you are trying to last hit creeps. But similarly to the Trinket of Restoration, the iron buckler is available for purchase from the outpost. So there is no real need to use your courier at this time unless you are having to hang back at your tower a great deal, or else if you are laning mid.

The first skill point you should use is your Stalagmites stun attack. This skill is easily my favorite stun attack in the game. The reason why, is because it stuns in a decent size radius. And since it isn’t a direct targeted spell, it can’t be canceled by an item like Nullstone. The best way to use this skill is to try and predict where your enemy will be in a second or so and then cast the Stalagmites there. This skill can be used for offensive and  defensive purposes. But once you get your portal key you will really have a blast with this super effective ability.

The next skill point you should get is called Chuck. This skill is slightly tricky to use at first. When I first used it, I was confused by the two circles that showed up and I got a little bit frustrated with the ability. But trust me, once you get comfortable using Chuck, you will really fall in love with this powerful Strength Hero. Stalagmites and the Chuck ability are best used in conjunction with each other. So you should try and make sure you have 240 mana or more at all times so you can dish out both skills on an opponent. But Chuck has many different uses beyond simple nuking. For example: Since you can Chuck friendly targets and heroes, if you only have enough for a Chuck or a Stalagmite, but you have a friendly ranged hero that isn’t too badly hurt nearby….then you can actually Chuck a friendly hero like Arachna at an enemy that is running to far away. And then Arachna may be able to slow the enemy down and finish him off.

Here’s a Youtube link to a good video demonstrating this kind of Chuck – Teamwork between a Pebbles and a Deadwood. If you click here the video will pop up in another tab. Notice how Pebbles stuns his target, then gets a punch or two on the enemy. Then he chucks his enemy at Deadwood, who then does his powerful stun/punch attack and finishes the target. This is a really good example of teamwork and if you are able to do things like this in a game it will not only feel good, but it can make your opponents more careful and nervous when they again encounter you on the battlefield. There is definitely a physiological aspect to any competitive game and combos like this can win matches.

You can also use Chuck defensively to get an attacking enemy off your back. I’ve seen interesting footage of a Pebbles getting attacked by a Legionnaire, and then Pebbles would Chuck him back at his friends before Legionnaire could taunt and attack. The trick with Chuck is that it will randomly pick a target hero or creep that is close to you and then it will toss that character at the target circle that is away from you. So the thing to be most concerned about is where that distant circle is.

An effective way to use Chuck would be to get an enemy by himself, and then Chuck the target. But instead of Chucking him away from you, make the circles overlap next to you. So this way the target is chucked on himself. While the target is flying in the air, you can initiate your Stalagmites stun so when he hits the ground he lands face first on some pointy cave paintings. Don’t forget to get a couple auto attacks in while he is stunned.

So in the beginning you should only put points into your Stalagmites stun and your Chuck ability. Don’t put points into your passive Stone Skin until you have maxed your first two skills and are pumping up your ultimate Enlarge passive.

There is a lot of debate on whether or not someone should put a point into the ultimate Enlarge when you hit level 6 or if one should keep pumping up the first two skills. I’ve played Pebbles both ways and I find that even though it is slightly more effective to stay small and pump up the stun/chuck…Pebbles looks cooler when he is big and so the game is more fun. Also it is easier to last hit creeps when you use the enlarge passive because you do more damage per hit at the expense of attack speed. I’m going to let you experiment with this and have fun with it. This is meant to be a more fluid guide that you can use for information and improvisation rather than some sort of cookie-cutter dogmatic manifesto.

So now you have your basic shield, your Blood Chalice and you have saved up some money. If you find that you are getting killed and you need speed so you can run away I suggest you purchase basic boots. But if you aren’t getting killed to much and have enough money then go ahead and purchase the next items so you can finish your Helm of the Black Legion. This helm in conjunction with your Blood Chalice is excellent because it will give you 300 hit points and health regeneration on top of some extra block.

The best way to use your Blood Chalice is to try and use it right before a nearby enemy hero is killed. That way you will get your initial health investment back. Also if there isn’t a tremendous amount of danger you can periodically use your chalice to get some mana, since you know the helm will eventually regen the Hit Points back.

After you have your Blood Chalice and Helm of the Black Legion then you should go ahead and finish your Strength Steamboots. The boots will increase your attack speed and give you strength which will factor into your Enlarge ultimate passive. You need to understand that strength statistics are much better for Pebbles than simple damage bonuses. The reason for this is because his Enlarge ultimate passive, gives a percentage increased BASE DAMAGE. Since base damage is modified by your hero’s main attribute, the more strength Pebbles has, the more damage he will do. And by the time Pebbles is high level and has level 3 Enlarge, the bonus to base damage is a whopping +120% !!! So the added strength from your Blood Chalice and the Steamboots can really make you do serious damage with your basic attack.

The next item you should get for Pebbles should be the infamous Portal Key! The most important part of using this item is that you need to get into the habit of activating it with you keyboard, NOT YOUR MOUSE. But your portal key in the top-right inventory slot and use Alt-E to activate it. Or else figure out some custom hotkey that works for you. But just don’t use your mouse for skills and clickable items, it is a bad habit and the longer you use that crutch the harder it will be to break it.

Once you have your Portal Key or “PK” that many people refer to it as, then you can teleport to a short distance away. So the best way to you your Portal Key is to make sure you have at least 315 mana on you. That way you can Portal Key close to an enemy, stun them, attack them, and then chuck them. Or else you can port in and chuck them first, that way you can make sure that you will hit them with your Stalagmites. Just think…PORT – STUN – TOSS – PUNCH – DEAD.

One thing you may be asking yourself is, “Where do I port to? Do I port in front of an enemy hero, or on the side or behind or what?” I’ve tried all the different positions and the best place to teleport near your enemy is whichever way is either behind them, or else is obstructing their path of movement. So if you see Ophelia attacking some creeps, port behind her and get the jump on her. But if you see Thunderbringer running like a little monkey away from you, then port directly in front of his escape path and then toss him. Then on the way down give the kid a stun and punch him. He will be dog meat for War Beast.

The best part of being a portal key Pebbles, is that you can get some serious kills for a strength hero. You can Kill Steal like a champ. Since your damage happens quickly, there is a good chance you will be the one to register the finishing hit. So be aggressive and have fun!

The next item that I like to get for Pebbles is the Behemoth’s Heart. This item is so awesome for a Strength hero and it is extra superb for Pebbles. The main reason why Behemoth’s Heart is so good is because it gives you 35 to strength and besides adding 665 hit points, the strength is affected by the previously discussed base damage % bonus of your ultimate. So if you have level 3 enlarge and Behemoth’s Heart you will be invariably giving yourself  77 extra damage and 665 health plus 300 health. Which is basically 965 hit points. And if that wasn’t enough reason to get the item, Behemoth’s Heart gives 0.75% health regen per second. Now this is different from the regen that you get from your Helm of the Black Legion or your Blood Chalice. This regen is based on your maximum hit points, so the more you have, the better.

Some people like to debate on what is better, hit points or armor. But the reality is that there isn’t just one kind of armor. There is two. There is magic armor and there is standard armor. And so if you have a lot of armor but not a lot of hit points, then you can still get killed very fast. But if you have a ton of hit points, and lots of regen, then you will have excellent survivability.

If you give Pebbles the items mentioned above, you can do over 350 damage per hit as the game progresses. This is serious damage for a strength hero. And combined with your stun/chuck combo we are talking about dishing out 1000 damage or more in a burst every 10 seconds cooldown or so. So you will be a highly effective initiator and your team will be thankful for your ability to soften and stun enemy targets.

Another thing to consider with your health regen and portal key is that you will be able to farm creeps rather quickly. This is especially true for lane creeps and neutral ones that are not magic immune. Since you have your Blood Chalice you will be able to give yourself mana every 30 seconds or so at the expense of health that will regen extremely quickly. So go head and spam your chuck/stun on creeps in order to get massive last hits and gold. And since you have a portal key you will be able to travel around the map quickly in order to farm fast.

I hope you enjoyed this Heroes of Newerth Portal Key Pebbles Guide and if you want to play a game some time leave a comment with your username in HoN and I will add you as a buddy.

-Tyler