Juking
By: Viole

Juking: When being pursued, it's what you do to 'lose' them or 'get them off your tail'. Common strategies to employ a juke would be going through the hidden paths in the trees, running erradically, and turning a corner to hide in the fog, and standing there, then running backwards when they are turning the corner as well.


Here are some basic spots you should learn to be able to efficiently juke, gank, and utilize to the best of your skill. Each picture has a screenshot of the minimap, marked in a white square, of where the spot is. The white paths are where you can run through freely. When I have time, I'll update this post with a detailed description of each spot, how you can use it to your advantage, and more. Perhaps I might actually think of a better way to explain juking rather than copying and pasting from my guide (see sig).... or perhaps not. Who knows? Confused by the terminology, or eager to learn more basic tips for new players? See my sig again (obvious link whoring btw).

In addition to all of these spots, a common tip that almost every new player (and even some experienced ones!) forget is that you should almost always hug the trees when fleeing. There's little notches and trees that stick out, allowing you to keep fogging (Being enshourded in the Fog of War, so you are not in the line of sight [los] of the enemy) the pursuer, so they can't cast a spell on you.

Another tip, well, rule you should follow, is ALWAYS CARRY A HOMECOMING STONE (TP, Teleport, Hearth, Scroll). Unless you are Nymphora (which you should still use one, since it's a shorter cast time than her ultimate), or have Posthaste, carry these stones around all the time. They will save you. Turning a corner and hiding in a crevice between a few trees and landing that portal may be your only way out alive.



Alright, above this block of text is one of the most dominant 'secret' areas in the southern part of the map. It is a defensive pathing directly under the tower, or a nice place to sit and gank. This path is very easy to move around in and use. The normal curve the northernmost 'route' takes goes from one side of the tower to the other, but be warned that if you are Hellborne, the tower WILL see you and WILL attack you back there (assuming it's not focusing something else, like an Imp or another Hero). Many players are unaware that there's a 'bottom tier' to this area, connected by the two vertical paths. This hugs the very bottom of the map, and extends to the west quite a distance. Very useful to hide in if you expect a gank incoming, but don't expect it to save you in high level play - they'll look there first!



In the center lane, this is one of the strongest and well used juking spots. A thin path connects the two long halves of this thick of trees together, with two smaller terminal paths on the north, providing a good place to set up Devourer's hooks, Valkyrie's javelin, and even just simple waiting and ganking. If you're being chased and are near death (or going to die if they catch you), run into this area, through the other side, and then hug the tree line back around and go for the tower for safety.



These three vertical paths are very well known, so chances are that you already know of them. In case you don't, or perhaps don't use the well enough, here's some tips. You can zig-zag in and out of them, such as going through the path one way, then going up and through a different way, just looping here and there to lose your enemies. Be careful that you don't loop too much and run back INTO them (then it just feels like one of those Scooby Doo chase scenes: see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7ACUJ-0ARY for more information). Also, you can use these areas to gank behind the bottom Legion tower where heroes may be sitting, unsuspecting of their impending demise.



I've never seen anyone except me use this weird hook place, but it's really useful for hiding in when waiting to gank a Hellborne hero between the two bottom lane towers, or for running to and hiding for either faction. Personally, getting a teleport off back there after you lose your opponents who may think you beelined down the lane can save your rear.



This is the path to the Legion's secret shop from the upper river. Everyone should know this path if they've played the game at least once here, so no use in over-describing it. It's just common knowledge. What some people do not know, though, is there are small nooks all over this area, letting you escape and gank players who may be shopping, or running through the shop back to base. Perhaps you are one of those players running, and instead you hide in one of the nooks and hit hold position as the whole enemy team runs past you, and you sneak out the back way.



This spot doesn't get too much use, but if you're going to gank the Legion in the middle lane at their tower when they're defending, and the rest of your team isn't there yet, this is a great place to sit and wait. It's out of sight of the ramp and pretty much everywhere else unless they run back there, and if they do, you either kill the person who found you, or enjoy having your bowels scrubbed clean with their many body parts.



Sorry, I messed up on this picture and it would take me like a good 20 seconds to go and fix it, re-save, and re-upload it here and I just can't be bothered alright? This takes place just next to the front Legion tower in the middle lane (you can see a square shape on the minimap if you look hard enough). Anyways, this is a great place for the middle laner (well, you should almost always let middle solo) to retreat to if being harassed a lot. It's next to the tower, so you'll have full sight of your enemy if they chase you as the tower beats on them, and there's a lot of places you can LoS them from. Just weave in and out, or sit in the middle of it and wait for them to come to you. For others, it's a good place to lose heroes and confuse them if you are having a team fight in the middle, and are about to die. Just run into there and go out one path, then turn around and hug the outside tree line backwards and you're home free.



Tree just left of the middle tower (great for 3v1 mid ganks and stuff like that, they have to follow you in there & suffer damage from the tower or back off. Gives allies time to TP in. *Courtesy of ElementUser



Unconventional & not widely known juke spot. Used by totallnewbie in the youtube link I posted earlier on in the thread . *Courtesy of ElementUser

An enlarged Minimap picture. I was too lazy to go everywhere and screenshot, then compile it all into one fully viewable picture, so deal with it . The pink squiggles are spots you can run into on the map. Obviously I left out the actual lanes and paths you can clearly figure out yourself As a note, some areas on this minimap are not currently accessible in HoN (as I have found out myself, and by suggestions). This is due to the fact that DotA, the game that HoN is based off of, had paths that were routed this way, but they were not ported into HoN for whatever reason, and I didn't check to make sure. These areas are: The arcing path that is to the east, and slightly north, of the Hellborne's secret shop [More to be added if they are discovered, though I am sure there aren't too many]. I will still be adding more pictures when I have the time, most notably the area just west of the middle tower in the Hellborne's center lane, the area just east of the first Hellborne tower in the center lane, next to Kongor, and one of the 737317 random ass pathways up top, at the fringe of the map.

Much thanks to Barter for this picture to replace the out of date one Vadi helped me lay out:



Keep looking out for new ways to utilize these areas. Ingenuity is always welcome when it comes to a game like this, being entirely predictable is not a good idea. Always try to watch your opponents, allies, and even yourself in how you juke and escape, or pursue, others. Learning how people move around the map can net you kills that you would have not gotten otherwise, as you can nearly predict their next movement and be one step ahead.

More advanced techniques, such as using Enhanced Marchers, are a great addition to your arsenal. Running into a thicket of trees and into the fog, and then using the Enhanced Marchers when you know your pursuer follows, and running back out of the fog is a nice trick. They'll lose a second or two on you because of reaction times, as well as not expecting you to run BACK into them, so they won't have a spell ready right then.

ALWAYS keep in mind of certain heroes that may be able to kill you regardless of juking, though. Such heroes like Pyromancer have AoE (Area of Effect, skills that effect an area [durrrr]) abilities that can hit you through the fog and trees, even if they can't see you. A well placed stun by Pyro can keep you in place long enough to kill you, if it didn't already. Defiler has her Wave of Death, which is a giant wave in a cone-shape that does 300 damage (~230 to heroes) which can hit you through the trees as well. Hellbringer is the worst case of all of these, though, because his ultimate not only is a HUGE area that stuns all units for a second, it destroys all the trees. So yeah, basically he can **** up your Christmas right there.