[Hero] Blacksmith

Blacksmith

From the Official Heroes of Newerth forum by Padawanabee

Stats

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• Pros/Cons
• Skills
• Skill Build
• Starting Items
• Core
• Luxury Items
• Strategy

Introduction

Blacksmith is a rather unique hero in Heroes of Newerth. A melee hero with above average starting armor, strength, strength gain, and base damage, the blacksmith is actually a intelligence-based nuke supporter who keeps his team strong (or at least fast) and the other team weak. His stats and skills are each direct ports of the Ogre Magi from DotA, but as with most heroes of HoN he received a significant aesthetic upgrade with the port.

How we will play blacksmith in this guide is as an early game ganker with late game team support. His excellent starting strength and strength gain, coupled with a spell that allows for a significant speed boost, allows us to focus on intelligence and support related items without having to worry about our survivablity.

Pros and cons


Pros

Ridiculous strength gain, one of the best in the game.
Basic stats and armor cover all survivability needs.
Excellent ganker with 2 nukes, one a slow and the other a stun.
Powerful support ability, adding a significant speed boost to allies.
Scales better mid-late than most intelligence heroes.
Performs well in a lane, especially combined with another stunner/disabler.
Easy to learn and play.

Cons

Only intelligence based hero with a melee attack.
Lackluster farming ability, which doesn't matter because you should be ganking.
Poor intelligence gain.
The arguably most powerful aspect of PASSIVE ult is UNRELIABLE

Skills

Fireball
Hurls a scorching fireball at target opponent, both damaging and stunning them.

Enemy target
Magic damage
Range: 600
Mana cost: 75/85/95/105
Mana cost with level 1 Chaotic Flames: 105/115/125/135
Mana cost with level 2 Chaotic Flames: 155/165/175/185
Mana cost with level 3 Chaotic Flames: 185/195/205/215
Cooldown: 15/12/9/6 ::Important:: cooldown does not go down with the level of Fireball but with the level of Chaotic Flames. ::Important::
Has a 25% chance to cast twice with level 1 Chaotic Flames
Has a 40% chance to cast twice and a 20% chance to cast 3 times with level 2 Chaotic Flames
Has a 50% chance to cast twice, a 25% chance to cast 3 times, and a 12.5% chance to cast a whopping 4 times with level 3 Chaotic Flames.
Deals 75/125/175/275 damage and stuns for 1.5 seconds.

This is the skill you will rely on more than any other throughout the game. It is your primary source of magic damage, as well as a powerful single target stun. Max it, as until level 4 it deals sub-par damage. Also, just like in DotA if you get extra casts of Fireball from Chaotic Flames the stun lasts longer.

Early game it serves us well. Until you put levels in Chaotic Flames it retains its low mana cost, which is a necessity considering our mana pool. It is a single target stun, so open with it in a gank. It allows you to set up a teammates spells as well. Tormentor or Pyromancer can easily hit someone who isn't moving for 1.5 seconds, although a Valkyrie might have more trouble. Or you could be laned with someone like Pestilence, and stun the enemy at 600 range, allowing Pestilence the chance to run in and use his stun.


Flaming Hammer
The Blacksmith throws a flaming hammer at a target enemy, which explodes on impact. The explosion causes the target to burn, taking damage over time and slowing their movement speed.

Enemy target
Magic damage
Range: 700

Radius: target/150/300/450 ::Important:: radius does not go up with the level of Flaming Hammer but with the level of Chaotic Flames ::Important::
Mana cost: 95/105/115/125
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Deals 10/20/30/40 damage a second and slows for 10/15/20/25% for 7.5 seconds

If you're too lazy to do the math, it deals 75/150/225/300 magic damage over it's duration. Another nuke, it works differently than fireball. It deals it's damage slower, but for chasing the 7.5 seconds of slow will actually allow more hits than 1.5 seconds of stun. Also, when we level Chaotic Flames, instead of dealing more damage to the target sometimes, it will always deal it's damage, but in a larger radius, allowing for AoE slow and some farming potential.

Frenzy
The Blacksmith uses his control over fire to motivate his ally the best way he knows how: with heat! Starts a non-harmful blaze on a friendly unit that increases attack speed and movement speed.

Target ally
magic effect
Range: 600
Mana cost: 75
Cooldown: 20/15/10/5::Important:: cooldown does not go down with the level of Frenzy but with the level of Chaotic Flames. ::Important::
Has a 25/40/50% chance to impact at least twice, 0/20/25% chance to impact at least three times, 0/0/12.5% chance to impact four times with levels in Chaotic Flames.
Applies frenzy to target for 30 seconds, ally gains 6/9/12/15% movement speed and 20/30/40/50 attack speed.

This spell will keep you supporting your team well into mid-late game. For some reference, activating Enhanced Marchers adds 10% move speed for 6 seconds, whereas level 4 frenzy adds 15% move speed in addition to practically giving them a Warpcleft for 30 seconds.

Level 2-3 Chaotic flames allows you to keep this on your whole team. Put it on your carrys and they will love it. Keep it on yourself and you run faster than all but the fastest heroes (Blood Hunter with 44% movespeed, for example).

Chaotic Flames
The Blacksmith is experienced at gambling with fire. increasing the power of his other spells. When casting his other spells, he has a chance to achieve a more powerful result.

Improves other abilities:
Fireball: When cast, has a 25/40/50% chance to impact at least twice, 0/20/25% chance to impact at least three times, 0/0/12.5% chance to impact four times. Decreases cooldown by 3/6/9 seconds.
Flaming Hammer: Increases radius by 150/300/450.
Frenzy: When cast, has a 25/40/50% chance to impact at least twice, 0/20/25% chance to impact at least three times, 0/0/12.5% chance to impact four times. Decreases cooldown by 5/10/15 seconds.


This is really the skill that will make you love or hate this hero. It adds a chance to cast Fireball multiple times, adds an AoE to Flaming Hammer, gives a chance to apply Frenzy on multiple allies, and lowers cooldowns. This ability earns Blacksmith a lot of hate, as people who play him complain of never multicasting (multiple applications of the stun) and people who play against him complain of always getting multicasted. The key to playing this hero is to never rely on multicasted stuns, pretend you don't have the possibility at all and you won't get yourself killed relying on that 25% chance.

Skill Build

(recommended)
A
1. Fireball
2.Flaming Hammer
3. Fireball
4. Flaming Hammer
5. Fireball
6. Chaotic Flames
7. Fireball (max)
8. Flaming Hammer
9. Flaming Hammer (max)
10. Frenzy
11. Chaotic Flames
12. Frenzy
13. Frenzy
14. Frenzy (max)
15. Stats
16. Chaotic Flames (max)
17-25. Stats


B
1. Fireball
2. Frenzy
3. Fireball
4. Frenzy
5. Fireball
6. Chaotic Flames
7. Fireball (max)
8. Frenzy
9. Frenzy (max)
10. Flaming Hammer
11. Chaotic Flames
12. Flaming Hammer
13. Flaming Hammer
14. Flaming Hammer (max)
15. Stats
16. Chaotic Flames (max)
17-25. Stats

Explanation

Fireball and Flaming Hammer are our nukes and our disables. It is suggested that you max them, fireball first, as quickly as possible. Frenzy is taken afterward, and Chaotic Flames whenever possible.

It is best to take Flaming Hammer before Frenzy for a couple reasons. Firstly, Flaming Hammer is more effective for ganks, and Frenzy for support, and our role does not shift to support until later in the game. Also, Blacksmith does not have the mana supply necessary to make the most of Frenzy until he gets mana and mana regen items.

You can delay Chaotic Flames if you need to. Each level increases the mana cost of Fireball by 30/50/30, and sometimes that 30 extra mana and extra level of ignite is more important than a 25% chance to multicast. Generally it won't be, though.

Items

Blacksmith is relatively item-independent. His hp and armor don't need the intervention of items to be good. We don't need to waste money on our health pool, we can move directly to what we need.

And what we need is mana, and mana regen. There are many ways to get those. We quickly fix his mana, getting it on par with other int types by purchasing Talismans of Exile, Int Steamboots, and a Bottle. We then move onto a long-term solution. While you could get items such as a Sacrifical Stone, I prefer to get items with benefits outside of mana regen. The top two contenders, then, are Hellflower and Kuldra's Sheepstick.

Initial purchases


1 2

Set 1- 571 gold- Consumables are used to stay in your lane. The pair of totem's become a power supply, since you'll buy the mana battery at the outpost. The Pretender's crown is part of your Talisman of Exile, which you only get one of as the power supply replaces the other.

Set 2- 583 gold- Consumables are used to stay in your lane. The 2 Marks of the Novice become Talismans of Exile. In the lane they provide a decent amount of mana and a cheap damage boost to aid in last hitting. The extra totem can be converted to another mana pot if you want to.

Working on our core

There are several cheap items that work well on Blacksmith before working on a big purchase. I will list them in order of importance and convenience (distance, cost, space) on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the highest.

Mana Battery
Importance: 3 Convenience: 5

A very effective item that can be purchased at the outpost. Good source of burst regen, something Blacksmith can definitely make use of. While more effective when laning against Nymphora/Armadon, it is useful against all lanes and in team fights, even mid game. Convenience rated 5, since you should have the two totems used to make this a Power Supply anyway.

Logger's Hatchet
Importance: 2 Convenience: 4

Blacksmith is a melee hero, and while he doesn't need farm or help farming, it's a useful enough item if you have an extra slot. Can be purchased at the outpost.

Iron Buckler
Importance: 2 Convenience: 4

An effective defensive item that can be purchased at the outpost. At no point would you upgrade this to a HotBL, you only use it for a HUGE damage reduction against creeps. Since Blacksmith often follows up stuns/slows with a right-click attack, he can aggro enemy creeps easily.

Bottle
Importance: 5 Convenience: 2

Blacksmith is in dire need of regen, especially burst regen obtained by items such as bottle and power supply. It is highly recommended you pick one of these up to augment your early game and gank phase. Unless your team bought a courier you're gonna need to run back to base for this, however.

Marchers
Importance: 5 Convenience: 2

Obviously, you'll want to pick up Marchers at some point in the first 10 minutes of gameplay. Blacksmith's role as a ganker and chaser makes this a smart purchase on your first trip back to town.

Power Supply
Importance: 3 Convenience: 4

If you decided to pick up a mana battery, you'll want to purchase this upgrade to open up a few inventory slots.

Talisman of Exile
Importance: 2 Convenience: 4

These items help to bring Blacksmith's mana supply up to the level of other nukers. Rated high on convenience, as both suggested build have part of the recipe for a ToE in them, so it clears up inventory space.

Steamboots
Importance: 5 Convenience: 2

Easily the best choice for boots on Blacksmith. Frenzy makes movespeed a non-issue, and as Blacksmith doesn't need farm the teleport on Post Haste is unimportant. The stats provided by these boots outshine the other two options. This is the last and most expensive of these options, bringing us to our:

Core

1. If you don't like Power Supply, substitute a Talisman of Exile for it
2. After you start leaving your lane and roaming/ganking, you'll want a tp stone at all times.
3. You can fill the empty slot with a Hatchet, Shield, 3rd Talisman of Exile, or save it for your next purchase.

Explanation:

You are both melee and a high mana cost nuker with high strength and low intelligence. The Talisman(s) and Power Supply add stats, and a nice mana pool. Even if other people on your team are grabbing bottles, go ahead and pick one up for the burst regen. You can also use it for rune whoring, as you'll be ganking throughout the mid game.

Steamboots are still the best boots for Blacksmith even after the change. He has enough armor on his own, and the stats are essential. You can switch between the int and str bonus as necessary.

So what next?
Recommended

Hellflower [Combative] (5025g)

Easily the best item to get on Blacksmith after the core. It solves your intelligence and mana regen problems, while adding significant damage and attack speed. Why would we want those on Blacksmith? Because he has a stun, a slow, and Frenzy. While an agi carry will get more out of frenzy than you, you can become a respectable DPS source in a fight yourself. On top of solving mana issues and adding damage capabilities, it casts a 5 second silence and 1.2 damage multiplier on an enemy hero. Perfect for your support role, and deadly if followed up by a 3x or 4x Fireball.

• Mana will never be an issue again
• Superb buildup, no item over 900g
• Auto attack damage upwards of 150 afterward
• Silence and damage amplification useful in ganks early-mid, and support late.

Kuldra's Sheepstick [Supportive] (5675g)

An obvious choice and a good one. Addresses mana issues, while adding to your support role in a team fight or a gank.

• Powerful and well-known disable
• Mana supply on par with Hellflower, will never be a problem after purchase

Likely alternatives

Ring of Sorcery [Supportive] (1700g)
If you have mana problems, this solves your mana problem for a short while and helps support your team.

• 300 added to your mana pool and activatable adding to regen significantly reduces mana issues
• 3 additional armor useful, not much to be had in this build.
• Gives Blacksmith a headstart on his support role, also useful in any early push strategy.

Stormspirit [Supportive] (2800g)

A good item early-mid game and an alternative to rushing hellflower. It provides intelligence, mana regen, movespeed, and a powerful disable.

• Enemies cannot be damaged or targetted during the disable
• 125% mana regen helps significantly
• Movement speed bonus useful before and after levels in Frenzy

Nome's Wisdom (Supportive] (2500)
A great choice on Blacksmith. I would advocate asking if anyone on your team is going to get one before you buy it, as aura's do not stack. However, if noone on your team is getting Nome's Wisdom it is recommended that you do.

• Useful on a non-stop caster like Blacksmith
• Supportive item. Aids casters rather than carries, unlike frenzy.

Luxuries

Behemoth's Heart [Protective] (5500)

With the recent changes to Behemoth's Heart, it's now viable as a luxury item on Blacksmith.

• Combined with innate str gain and Frenzy's movespeed, Blacksmith can be extremely difficult to kill
• Reduces cooldown's further, Fireball goes all the way from initial 15s to 5s, with Heart and 3 levels of ult

Frostfield-Plate [Protective] (4700g)

This choice is respectable, though probably not as powerful in the hands of blacksmith as Hellflower or Totem of Kuldra. A support int item like the rest, this one also allows us to farm to a certain extent when combined with Flaming Hammer.

• Aura and activatable amplifies support role
• Amazing armor supplied. Combined with Blacksmith's hp he can be quite tanky.

Harkon's Blade [Morph Attack] (5100)
Definately a luxury item. Stats are more or less on par with Hellflower, a bit more int but a bit less damage and regen. It's special can be a huge damage boost, but it's countered by an item much cheaper than 5100 (Shaman's Headdress).

• Can provide a huge damage boost, but unreliable and counterable
• Provides mana supply, damage, and a small attack speed boost

Riftshards [Combative] (2650-3600-4550-5500)
Not really recommended, but a nice dps boost if your team needs one.

• Luxury if DPS is needed, best when combined with item sets already containing Sheepstick and Behemoth's Heart

Item Builds
Initial

Core

Standard----------------Supportive---------------Damage----------------Alternate

Strategy

When should I pick Blacksmith, and why?

• You should pick Blacksmith if your team needs a ganker early, or support late. He does both.
  
• While Blacksmith is not a carry, he has a lot to do with them. He is an allied carries best friend, with frenzy and 2 disables. He also has the ability to keep enemy carries weak with consistent ganking.
• When your team needs int support, but the enemy have many heroes that can easily drop a squishier int, like Magmus and Night Hound.
• Blacksmith is good for most lineups, as he has his nukes early and, due to his ultimate and skillset in general, scales better than most int support/gankers. His weakest point is in the laning phase.

When Shouldn't I pick Blacksmith?

• You have a melee-heavy lineup and poor lanes.
• Enemies have large amounts of mana burn or silence.

Laning

Blacksmith's weakest time is in the laning phase. His melee attack range makes free farming much easier, especially if you pick up a Hatchet, but puts him at a disadvantage when laning against an enemy hero. Since most Blacksmith's will build him with Fireball+Flaming Hammer, he has a nuke and a disable. His nuke is weaker than most until level 7, however, and his mana pool is worse than other int types.

Blacksmith should always lane with an ally. He can easily dominate a lane with a fellow nuker/disabler, such as Tormentor. But if he gets laned against Magmus+Pyromancer with a tDL at his side, you're probably going to be tower hugging until 7.

One of the few times I would advocate getting Frenzy early would be if you had a lane/gank partner who can make good use of it. Laning with Arachna or Pestilence, for example, might make Fireball/Frenzy a good build. Especially if you're friends with that Arachna or Pestilence. You would be able to focus most of your mana on Fireballs, and the Frenzy would give them a movespeed and attack speed boost on par with boots and half a Warpcleft, with only 2 points in the skill.

Notes:

• If you are going to go after the enemy heroes, try to make sure you have an advantage somehow. If you can get 3 creeps attacking him while he's stunned, or you and your teammate will be able to pound on one of your enemies while the other is out of range.
• Follow up stuns and slows with auto attack unless it would place you in a position to be killed. Such as if they have the creep advantage and a stun or two, or you'd be chasing too far while mid is mia.
• Pushing is not always bad in a lane. If you have pushed bot lane to the enemies tower, your entire lane is fogged. You can use this opportunity to pull, or check rune, or even gank. Enemies are far less likely to call mia in time if they believe you are just waiting outside of the tower's range for the next creep wave.
• Blacksmith can easily get shut down if you have a bad laning partner. If all else fails, stay back at the tower and keep up in levels, you'll catch up on cash in the ganking phase, hopefully.

Mana Conservation

At least until you get a Bottle and 2 Great Arcana's, mana will be a constant problem with Blacksmith. Blacksmith's play-style basically amounts to spamming his spells constantly and following up with auto attacks. You keep Frenzy on as many people as you can, and you cast Fireball and Flaming Hammer as soon as they're off cooldown. However, before you buy mana and mana regen this strategy will last for about 4 spells before you're oom (out of mana) and down to auto attacking.

Tips

• If Fireball is level 4, and Flaming Hammer is level 2, save your mana for Fireballs, unless the kill is guaranteed only if you Flaming Hammer.
• It is not mana efficiant to keep Frenzy on your entire team until you have high amounts of mana regen. Keep it on an auto-attacking carry and maybe yourself.
• Make the most of stuns and slows. You can auto attack an enemy at least once before the stun wears off and you need to Flaming Hammer to slow him down.

Fireball

Fireball is one of the simplest abilities in the game. You cast it on a target, you lose mana, and the target is damaged and stunned. It requires no skill to use or aim, you simply click on bad guys and they explode.

Chaotic Flames makes this one of the sickest abilities in the game. Even at 7, Blacksmith has a 25% chance to turn this simple nuke into 550 damage, more than Pyromancer's ultimate, and stunning for about 2 seconds. At level 3 chaotic Flames, you can deal 1100 damage and stun for about 3 seconds with a x4 multicast. At that point, it has a 50% for 2x, 25% chance for 3x, and 12.5% chance for 4x. The odds of you multicasting are greater than not.

It starts with a fairly long cooldown, but eventually gets dropped to 6 seconds. It's mana cost also become incredibly high, but by this point you should have enough mana items that it shouldn't be a problem.

Notes:

• Simple to aim and use
• With levels in Chaotic Flames, it effectively becomes a Pyromancer ultimate with a stun included every 6 seconds.

Flaming Hammer

Frenzy

Chaotic Flames

Laning and Early Phase.

Your buddies are fellow stunners/disablers. Always lane with a teammate, and try to lane with a teammate with a stun, preferably one poweful but hard to hit with A.K.A. Devourer or Tormented. Keep as much coordination between your ally and yourself going as possible, as Blacksmith can burst pretty damn hard early to mid game.

Keep good map awareness, all the Strength in the world won't help against an Swiftblade+Electrician gank if you aren't near your tower. If you do decide to go bottle, think about buying wards to watch the runes and for ganks. Call mia when your enemies leave and support your lane partner, if he's a harder carry than you, such as Madman or Night Hound, try to let him get the kills if it's guaranteed.

Midgame and ganking phase.

This is where you will shine, so enjoy it while you can. Hopefully by now (probably 20-25 minutes in) you will have Steamboots, bottle, and level 2 Chaotic Flames. Look for any hero who's pushed too far, look for enemy heroes your allies are having troubles with, and gank your enemies jungle. Rune whore if you got bottle, and keep up the coordination with your teammates. If you keep the enemy low during this phase you've already won. You can hit for (275x3 multicast +300 AoE with slow and stun) and supply at least level 1 frenzy to your allies. Your skill-set peaks in between mid and late, so do whatever you can to give your allies the edge.

Late game

Hopefully you ganked well and helped your carries become stronger than theirs, because you start losing power at this point. DON'T BE ALARMED. If you got a hellflower or totem, you can still decide fights for your team. Blacksmith scales exceedingly well late game for an int hero. Slow, silence and stun their carries and frenzy your own. Work with your teammates and don't go in alone unless you wish to die.

Even supposing your carries did poorly and the enemy carries are big, don't panic. If you played significantly better than others, you can decide fights yourself. A Blacksmith with Hellflower and Totem of Kuldra has:

• A stun on a 6 second cooldown that can do up to 1100 magic damage
• An AoE 25% slow
• A 3 second hex
• A 5 second Silence and 20% damage amplification
• A team-wide +15% ms and +50 attack speed buff
• Upwards of 2.5k hp and 200 a swing.

There's enough disable there to hold not only your weight, but another teammate's as well. Blacksmith scales MUCH better this late in the game than heroes such as Pyromancer and Demented Shaman.


How to pull your weight in a fight.

• If Fireball is off cooldown, toss one at the greatest threat.
• After blast, chain an ignite into the largest group of enemies.
• Bloodlust has cd of 5 seconds when multicast is maxed, and last 30 seconds. That means its possible to keep all allied heroes bloodlusted at the same time.

Never stop casting if you have mana.

What to do During the Game

Chasing