The latest Heroes of Newerth patch, live as of this writing, has introduced a brand new hero to the game. Designed as "a true support hero who must take risks to reach his full potential," Martyr looks to join the ranks of support heroes currently in the game. If you're a fan of helping your team, then this hero is going to be right up your alley.
With only one damaging ability -- Retribution -- Martyr instead focuses on protecting and healing his allies. His mechanics are slightly different than other support heroes though. While most typically have fairly straight forward abilities, Martyr instead employs skills that act very differently based on his current status.
For example, Retribution deals a small base amount of bonus damage, as well as a bonus based on how much health percentage he is missing. It also places a movement speed slow on the target of up to 50% for 3 seconds.
His second ability is called Guardian Angel. When cast on an ally, it will redirect up to 50% of damage taken to Martyr instead. Any damage taken by Martyr through this skill cannot take him below 10% health. One bonus of the skill is that should Martyr die while Guardian Angel is up, he will gain any of the experience his target gains for 30 seconds. Passively, the skill also reduces the damage he takes as his health percentage drops.
Sacrificial Lamb is his third ability, and it will take 20% of his current health to heal all surrounding allies by 100% of that amount at max rank. Because it uses a percentage of his health as the value for the heal, it's not very effective early on. That said, late game once you have hit point items it can be very nice. If Martyr dies, this skill will substantially increase the movement and attack speeds of any allies within a 700 radius.
Hand in Hand is his ultimate. A short-range channeled ability that is essentially a heal, it will take you and your target's health percentages into account. Over time it will set the lower of the two to equal the higher. His ultimate is another great late game ability due to it being percentage based.
Comments