Predator
General notes: This guide is broken up into several components as follows:
1. Hero overview and skill descriptions.
2. Skill build, alternate skill builds where appropriate.
3. Recommended item builds.
4. General strategies for early, mid, and lategame play.
Overview: Predator is a powerful, flexible lategame hero with better-than-average midgame performance compared to several other STR and AGI heroes. He has one of the most powerful lifesteal abilities in the game, which does not discriminate in damage based on target HP (making it extremely effective against high-HP, otherwise sturdy targets). He is a very strong initiator whose damage potential only increases as the game goes on. By late-game, if he has been played well, he is nearly unstoppable.
People frequently compare Predator to DotA's Naix, and though the comparison has some value the hero has changed substantially in its port to HoN and so many of the playstyles familiar to former Naix afficianados will no longer be viable choices for Predator.
Skill Descriptions
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Venomous LeapThe Predator leaps toward an enemy unit, then strikes them with venomous claws. The enemy takes some damage and is slowed briefly.
75/125/175/225 Magic Damage and slows by 40%. Lasts 2/3/4/5 seconds.
This is a modified form of Blink Strike. This ability is targeted, meaning you will use it on a specific target rather than on an area of the screen or minimap. It is what makes Predator a powerful initiator and ganker all game long. Though the damage output from the ability itself diminishes later in the game relative to the HP of your targets, early game it can and will function as a modestly powerful nuke in addition to its obvious primary role of putting you where your target is.
Stone HideThe Predator makes his hide like stone, granting him Magic Immunity, dispelling debuffs, and increasing his armor temporarily.
Adds +3/6/9/12 armor and magic immunity, lasts 3/3.75/4.5/5.25 seconds.
This is Predator's signature ability, the skill that makes him feared by casters, disablers, and stunners in every game you play. Its power cannot be overstated. Almost everything that another hero can do to you in HoN, other than autoattack, is a magical ability that will be nullified by this skill. Thunderbringer's nukes will not harm you. Puppet Master's disables will not affect you. Stuns will not affect you. Physical attacks will do substantially less damage than normal.
Stone Hide has a 15 second cooldown at all ranks. While this is reasonably short in terms of game time, it is long enough that you must choose wisely when to use it. Good players will watch for you to pop this, avoid you as best they can for its duration, and focus you hard as soon as it wears off. Predator has no escape mechanism. He cannot blink out of a fight. He doesn't have any natural movement speed buffs. If you get stuck in a pack of enemy heroes with Stone Hide on cooldown, you're going to die unless you're simply too farmed for them to fight back.
Note that this ability cannot be activated if you are silenced or stunned. It will prevent silences and stuns from affecting you if it is already active, but you cannot use it reactively to a stun or other debilitating CC effect (Totem of Kuldra, Puppet Strings, etc). This means, again, that you must choose your cast wisely. New Predator players will frequently use Stone Hide immediately after Venomous Leap, giving their opponents a significant window to counter you with their CC abilities and get away before it is too late for them. Specific examples of how this ability should be used, and when, will be given below.
CarnivorousThe Predator feasts on his opponents flesh with each attack, allowing him to topple the mightest warriors. Each attack damages opponents for a percentage of their current Health, and heals the predator based on the damage dealt.
Damage 3.75%/4.5%/5.25%/6% of enemy current health with each attack and heals the Predator the same amount. Passive.
This is Predator's famous lifesteal. It scales with target HP, making it fantastically effective against high-HP heroes, powerful neutral creeps, and somewhat weaker against low HP heroes and units. It grows in effectiveness all game long, scaling as your enemies gain HP. It makes Predator far more effective against sturdy, tank heroes (Electrician, Legionnaire) than most other physical DPS heroes. It does not work against Kongor.
An important consideration for any Predator player is that Carnivorous operates against your target's current, not maximum, HP. This means that it loses effectiveness rapidly as your target's health drops, which in practice means that Predator players frequently have trouble finishing low HP targets as the damage contribution from Carnivorous diminishes.
TerrorThe Predator roars, instilling terror in nearby enemies, reducing their armor. Allies who attack enemies affected by terror will receive increased attack and movement speed.
Applies Terror to nearby (450 radius) enemy units for 20 seconds. -4 / 8 / 12 armor. When an affected target is attacked, the attacker receives a 30 / 50 / 70% IAS and 15% movement speed buff for 4.5 seconds.
Terror, Predator's ultimate, is an interesting ability. It is designed to be used immediately after charging (generally, through Venomous Leap) into a pack of enemy heroes. The nature of this ability is such that you want to use it as early as possible in the fight. It lasts for 20 seconds (substantial), and the effects it grants to friendly heroes are very powerful. 70% IAS is a lot. 15% MS is a lot. When used properly, this ultimate can turn a route into a stunning victory for your team, though it lacks the panache of say Tempest or Behemoth.
It has an extremely long (150 second) cooldown. You must be careful when you use it. It is highly effective even against a single hero, as it adds what Predator desperately needs - IAS and movement speed, but you should choose your opportunities with care. If this is down when a major teamfight begins, you'll be much weaker than you should be.
Skill Builds
Predator's skill build is usually fairly static. The exception is when you choose not to lane at all, and spend your time jungling instead. If you do this, typically you'll max Carnivorous first, picking up Venomous Leap later. In any scenario, I strongly recommend taking one rank of Stone Hide for your own safety. Stone Hide can and will save your life.
Laning / General Purpose Build
1. Venomous Leap
2. Stone Hide
3. Carnivorous
4. Carnivorous
5. Carnivorous
6. Venomous Leap
7. Carnivorous (max)
8. Venomous Leap
9. Venomous Leap (max)
10-12. Stone Hide (max)
13-14. Terror
15. Stats
16. Terror (max)
17-25. Stats.
Some people may argue that taking Terror earlier is important, but I respectfully disagree. While Predator is a strength hero, and late in the game is a very powerful tank, he is somewhat fragile early on. Leaping into a whole pack of enemy heroes, especially if Stone Hide isn't maxed, is usually a one-way ticket back to the fountain. As his ult is far more effective at rank 3 than at rank 1, I usually choose to wait to level it until his other skills are maxed out.
Predator doesn't have any bad skills. Carnivorous is 100% essential no matter what you're doing. Stone Hide likewise. Venomous Leap can be ignored if you're playing a Jungle Predator, but frankly you need at least one point in this for opportunistic ganking even if you're planning to spend the first 10-12 levels in the jungle anyway.
Jungling Build
1/3/5/7: Carnivorous
2/4/6/8: Stone Hide
9/10/11/12: Venomous Leap
13/14: Terror
15. Stats
16. Terror
17-25: Stats
Really the only difference in this build is that you ignore Venomous Leap early to completely max out Carnivorous as early as possible. Jungle Predator is all about abusing Carnivorous. As early as level 3, you can begin to solo the weaker creep camps, and by level 5 you can take anything but the most powerful. You will usually want to attack the strongest creep first (so that you are stealing the maximum amount of life during the time when most creeps are hitting back). Predator takes a while to kill things early on, since Carnivorous is doing all the work. While Jungle Predator works, he is substantially less effective at it than, say Tempest or Ophelia. Jungling is something to do in pubs, or when you want to have two soloers in the lane (say you have Thunderbringer and Defiler both or something).
Item Builds
Predator is a flexible hero who works well with many different items. As a general rule, you want to pick your (lategame) items to address his main weaknesses, which are as follows:
1. Low attack speed.
2. Poor chasing ability.
3. Fragility, especially early game
Starting items:
x 2
x 2You can adjust for personal preference here. I much prefer healing potions to runes, and I frequently start with a pair of Pretender's Crowns for the slight boost to HP, mana, and damage. Other popular early items include mana potions for Venomous Leap spam, an Iron Buckler if you plan to go for Helm of the Black Legion, etc. There's room for variation.
Early / Midgame purchases:
SteambootsSome people may argue with this, saying that Enhanced Marchers are better. My view is, Predator's attack speed sucks. His attack speed also directly influences the relative power of Carnivorous, such that more is almost always better. Steamboots gives a much better damage increase, more HP, more survivability (since the HP from steamboots is worth quite a bit more to Predator than the armor from Enhanced Marchers due to the presence of Stone Hide). You do lose the power of phasing, which right now is extremely overpowered. If you choose to go Enhanced Marchers, you'll be fine, but your damage output in early and midgame will be a bit lower than I personally prefer.
Fortified Bracelet x 2More HP, more damage, a little more mana and IAS. Cheap upgrade for the Crowns you already have.
Major mid-lategame items:
Insanitarius (Core item on Predator)This is one of the most-overlooked and underused items in all of DotA / HoN. It passively gives +9 damage, +15 IAS, 5 armor, and 3 HP regen. More importantly, its activated ability grants the following (massive) benefits:
+25 STR
+31 damage (for a total of +56 when combined with the STR bonus, nearly as much as the 3700g Sword of the High)
+10 IAS
-35HP / second
Each point of STR, for reference, grants +19 HP and a bit of HP regen. Insanitarius's clickable effect, then, gives you an additional 475 HP. For those who look at the ticking dot from Insanitarius with fear, keep in mind that you are ahead on total HP for 13 seconds. It will save your life even when used defensively. Offensively, it adds a massive +65 damage with Unholy Strength active, along with 25% IAS, some armor, and a bit of regen. It is arguably the most powerful and cost-effective item in the game for a DPS strength hero, which Predator certainly is. In almost no situation will you replace this item with any other for Predator. Farming it once you have your main support items is of paramount importance.
HackHack addresses one half of Predator's main weakness; his inability to chase. His only snare is Venomous Leap, which lasts for only 4 seconds. If you're having trouble ganking or killing runners, build for Hack. It also gives you 16 STR and 10 damage. As a general rule, I make Hack when my team doesn't have a lot of chasing ability and we need a way to reliably kill gank targets. If you have a ton of slow/disable already (Arachna, for example) omit this item and go straight for one of the luxury items below once you have crafted Insanitarius.
SlashSlash addresses the other half of Predator's weakness: his lousy attack speed and IAS. You probably wouldn't get this on him unless you were also getting Hack for the slow, but if you are you may as well make both and create...
Hack and SlashGives you IAS, HP, damage, and a Slow proc. All the things Predator needs in a reasonably cheap bundle. Again, you wouldn't choose to build this item unless you really want the slow, but if you do then this is a cheap, versatile item that adds all of the stuff Predator needs.
Luxury / Late-game items
Once you've build his core above, you have lots of options. Your choice will typically depend on what your team needs. Need a DPS hero / carry? Build for Flayer. Need a tank? Build for Symbol of Rage or Behemoth's Heart. Having a ton of trouble with farmed enemy casters? You can (though rarely would in practice) build for Shrunken Head.
ShieldbreakerCheap damage and an armor debuff that stacks with Terror. If you're having trouble farming something bigger and nastier, nothing wrong with this. Damage is never bad.
FlayerDamage. Lots of it. With big crits. Predator does a lot of damage per hit, especially with Insanitarius active. Flayer will turn those big hits into big crits, translating into more dead enemies. If you can farm it, do so and annihilate everyone.
Symbol of RageFor the discerning Predator who wants to be ludicrously hard to kill while still doing a ton of damage. Gives a huge life boost, a huge lifesteal, and a clickable effect that when combined with Insanitarius and Stone Hide turns you into a walking machine of death for anything unfortunate enough to get in your way. If you actually manage to farm this and Insanitarius, there are very few heroes in the game who can fight you.
Items that I do not recommend:
Behemoth's HeartYou're not a tank. You can pretend to be one, but the core of Predator's skillset is keeping himself alive by killing someone else. You want to play to your strengths, and Predator's strength is Carnivorous. Heart isn't really bad on any hero, but you could have spent this money on a Symbol of Rage instead and gotten a lot more damage and offensive punch out of the deal without sacrificing all that much survival.
Elder ParasiteNot a bad item by any means, but if you're going to get this you should skip Insanitarius. Predator is almost always the first hero into an engagement, and anything that greatly increases the damage you take is probably an unwise investment. Insanitarius gives you better benefits than Parasite for a smaller drawback. You don't need massive Lifesteal as Predator; you need the IAS and HP to make your existing lifesteal work for you.
Shrunken HeadIf being spell immune is good, then being spell immune all the time must be better. Right? Right?! Well, no. It's not very common that you would be so afraid of nukers that you would need Shrunken Head in addition to Stone Hide, but it has happened on occasion. If your team is being wrecked by an enemy lineup of disablers and nukers, you can build for this and slaughter them all without mercy.
Really, though, there's almost never a game in which this is a better investment than one of the other luxury items above.
Playstyle notes and general game tips and philosophy
1. Predator is a ganker and late-game carry. He is not a strong hero in the lane, he sucks at pushing, and he is very vulnerable early in the game. You must play him with these basic tenets in mind. Some general principles about Predator:
- When Carnivorous is at rank 3 or above, you should be hitting something. Always be hitting something. There's no good reason not to be abusing Carnivorous, which means in practice that if you're not at 100% HP go find something to beat on until you are. If you can't farm a lane, go kill some neutrals. If you can't kill neutrals, farm a lane. Like many late-game heroes, your performance depends mostly on how well you farm for gold and XP. As Predator, your massive advantage is that you should never ever need to return to your base to heal. Carnivorous can bring you from dead to full HP in a single neutral camp once you have a bit of IAS to support it.
- Abuse Venomous Leap early. Buy mana pots to support it if you need to. Venomous Leap + a single melee hit will take most heroes below 60% HP early in the game. Don't be afraid to Leap -> Stone Hide -> retreat as a form of harassment as early as level 3. You need to be careful with your mana, of course, but you can and should use Leap to harass your opponents as much as possible.
- Gank. Gank gank gank. Predator is an excellent ganking partner for a wide variety of different heroes. If you pair up with a disabler, you can use Leap twice; Leap in, beat on your target, let your teammate disable, then Leap again when it's off cooldown. Very few heroes can get away from this. Prioritize heroes that are otherwise difficult to gank, like Legionnaire and Electrician, knowing that Carnivorous will let you whittle down their HP very rapidly.
- Play to your strengths. Carnivorous is one of the best abilities anywhere in the game, and it lets you do things that most other heroes wouldn't dream of. Farm the most powerful neutral creep camps by level 7. Roam the woods feeding off neutral creeps and getting HP back. Pick the biggest beefiest tank hero as your target and laugh as you rip off half their HP in four swings.
- Get good with Stone Hide. You can use it reactively to remove certain annoying abilities (Slither's poisons, many different magical snares, dots, etc). Only use it proactively when you're up against heroes with hard CC - stuns, hard disables (Hex, for example). Stone Hide is what keeps you alive; if you use it too early you'll get demolished.
- Don't solo. Predator sucks in a solo lane. Pair with a good disabler and abuse Venomous Leap. You can get kills as early as level 3 with Leap. Popular lanemates include:
Electrician
Arachna
Pollywog Priest
Legionnaire
Anything with a good disable or slow will work.
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