Mike 'Hairboi' Lamming lends his knowledge to the Cadred readership with yet another hero guide. This time, Madman.

This column is the sole opinion of the author and does not represent the opinion of Heaven Media Ltd or the opinion of any affiliates.

It's been a while since we brought you our guide on Pestilence and since then there has been very little features related to Heroes of Newerth - discounting the Ask Freshpro piece. We felt it was time to bring you the third hero guide in the series, this time our resident HoN expert Mike 'Hairboi' Lamming will bring you the low down on one of the most popular heroes in todays metagame, I am of course talking about Madman.

Over the past few weeks we've seen Madman picked on numerous occasions and almost always the hero is a gamebreaker. With a huge amount of changes in the past month or so he has become the hard carry of choice for many top teams as they look to take advantage of the now great early game ganking potential on top of the massive late game damage output.

Madman

Attack Type: Melee
Side: Hellbourne
Class: Agility

Positives

* Scales amazingly well to the late game with a 2x critical strike, and +120 attack speed bonus.

* Very difficult to gank thanks to Stalk and Barrel Roll.

* Excellent at solo mid, using Stalk to keep up on farm and grabbing the runes.

Negatives

* Constantly low on mana.

* Stalk is somewhat countered by dust and wards.

* Very squishy, therefore will die a lot to dual stun lanes if caught.

Mike 'Hairboi' Lamming lends his knowledge to the Cadred readership with yet another hero guide. This time, Madman.

This column is the sole opinion of the author and does not represent the opinion of Heaven Media Ltd or the opinion of any affiliates.

The Skills:

Skill 1 – Stalk

This skill allows Madman to grab last hits against tough lanes, meaning playing middle is entirely possible and allowing you to get the early level advantage. It also allows him to escape incoming ganks, beat enemies to runes, chase fleeing enemies, and set up ganks easily and efficiently.

Madman whilst stalking

Level 1:

Mana Cost: 60
Cooldown: 12 Seconds
Duration: 4 Seconds
Radius: 175
Effects: +50% Movement Speed, Stealth, Unitwalking, Deals 90 damage to enemies within radius.

Level 2:

Mana Cost: 60
Cooldown: 10 Seconds
Duration: 4 Seconds
Radius: 175
Effects: +50% Movement Speed, Stealth, Unitwalking, Deals 100 damage to enemies within radius.

Level 3:

Mana Cost: 60
Cooldown: 8 Seconds
Duration: 4 Seconds
Radius: 175
Effects: +50% Movement Speed, Stealth, Unitwalking, Deals 110 damage to enemies within radius.

Level 4:

Mana Cost: 60
Cooldown: 6 Seconds
Duration: 4 Seconds
Radius: 175
Effects: +50% Movement Speed, Stealth, Unitwalking, Deals 120 damage to enemies within radius.

Skill 2 – Barrel Roll

This skill applies a powerful movement speed and attack speed slow for 3.5 seconds, and also acts as a decent nuke. Its range increases slightly per level, and makes him invulnerable during it, making you able to juke certain skills if you time it correctly. It is this combined with stalk that make The Madman such a strong hero early game, with the constant threat of him ganking either in lane or in mid and with his constant slows and speed buffs it is very difficult to escape from.

Level 1:

Mana Cost: 110
Cooldown: 11 Seconds
Range: 400
AoE Effects: Deals 100 magic damage
Effects: Slows attack speed by 30% and movement speed by 30% for 3.5 seconds.

Level 2:

Mana Cost: 110
Cooldown: 11 Seconds
Range: 465
AoE Effects: Deals 160 magic damage
Effects: Slows attack speed by 37% and movement speed by 37% for 3.5 seconds.

Level 3:

Mana Cost: 110
Cooldown: 11 Seconds
Range: 530
AoE Effects: Deals 220 magic damage
Effects: Slows attack speed by 44% and movement speed by 44% for 3.5 seconds.

Level 4:

Mana Cost: 110
Cooldown: 11 Seconds
Range: 600
AoE Effects: Deals 280 magic damage
Effects: Slows attack speed by 50% and movement speed by 50% for 3.5 seconds.

Barrel roll animation.

Skill 3 – Gash

This is a standard critical strike skill, boosting up The Madman’s damage hugely when it procs. It is gash, along with his ultimate that make him such a wrecking machine when it gets into the late game due to his immense attack speed and thus, immense chance of hitting the critical strike.

Level 1:

Effects: 10% chance to deal a 2.0x critical strike.

Level 2:

Effects: 16% chance to deal a 2.0x critical strike.

Level 3:

Effects: 22% chance to deal a 2.0x critical strike.

Level 4:

Effects: 28% chance to deal a 2.0x critical strike.

Skill 4 – Beserk

This ultimate gives a massive attack speed boost on demand, as well as a small speed boost with more than 50% uptime. At level 16, this will make you do towards 2 attacks per second, depending on your items. Should Madman receive a good farm early game then this skill will see him take over games as he can solo almost any hero due to his constant pressure from stalk and barrel roll, combined with his huge attack speed.

Level 1:

Mana Cost: 50
Cooldown: 55 Seconds
Duration: 30 Seconds
Effects: +5% Movement Speed, +40 Attack Speed

Level 2:

Mana Cost: 80
Cooldown: 55 Seconds
Duration: 30 Seconds
Effects: +7% Movement Speed, +80 Attack Speed

Level 3:

Mana Cost: 110
Cooldown: 55 Seconds
Duration: 30 Seconds
Effects: +9% Movement Speed, +120 Attack Speed

Mike 'Hairboi' Lamming lends his knowledge to the Cadred readership with yet another hero guide. This time, Madman.

This column is the sole opinion of the author and does not represent the opinion of Heaven Media Ltd or the opinion of any affiliates.

Skill Build:

1. Stalk
2. Barrel Roll
3. Stalk/Barrel Roll
4. Stalk/Barrel Roll
5. Stalk/Barrel Roll
6. Stalk/Barrel Roll
7. Barrel Roll
8. Stalk
9. Gash/Beserk
10. Gash/Beserk
11. Beserk
12. Gash
13. Gash
14. Gash
15. Stats
16. Berserk
17-25. Stats

Stalk is taken at level one - providing you don’t intend on trying to set up a rune gank where Barrel Roll may be more useful. Stalk gives a sure way to grab early creep kills, doing 90 damage at level 1 for only 60 mana. Barrel Roll should be maxed first over Stalk, however between levels 3 and 6, the order in which you do so depends on the situation.

Since the recent buffs to The Madman’s ultimate, it is now viable to take at level 9 due to its low mana cost, allowing you to use it even to farm the jungle with. Gash should always be maxed as you enter the mid-game as it allows The Madman to scale amazingly into the late game along with his ultimate, which you take again at level 16.

Item Builds:

Starting Item Build

or

Bottle first item is usually highly questionable; however this build allows him to constantly Stalk for last hits, and can refill the bottle with runes, or more commonly, bottle ferry. Bottle ferrying is using the courier (usually flying), to take your empty bottle, run it to the fountain, and return it fully refilled. Bottle ferrying on The Madman can even allow him to take a lane one versus two. If, however, you don’t intend on bottle ferrying, take a hatchet to help with last hitting and a iron buckler to help nullify some damage, eventually making it into an iron shield

Early Game Build:

Steamboots are taken to provide extra survivability, damage, mana, and attack speed all in one. Steamboots combined with Stalk will give The Madman maximum movement speed (522) for its duration. A power supply is pretty much core for all heroes, and the burst regeneration can turn a situation around. The bracer is optional but recommended to help stay alive early game. A sustainer is taken as it can be made into either a runed axe or a Nullstone, it provides additional damage, as well as health and mana regeneration, all of which help The Madman early game. The sustainer, coupled with a bottle, and toggling of Steamboots, will give you enough mana to survive and contribute during the early game, as well as helping you farm your core items.

Core Build:

or

This is where item builds will differ greatly, and they all depend on the situation you are in. If they other team has Arachna and Soul Reaper for instance, then Nullstone would be the ideal first item. It provides very good stats, good mana and health regeneration, and would block both Arachna’s and Soul Reaper’s ultimate’s. However, if you intend on getting insane farm, but foregoing early survivability, then a runed axe would be the item of choice. After you have taken one of these items, you should then aim to farm a Shrunken Head as it allows the Madman to output his DPS without being disabled.

Luxury/Late Game Items

Savage Mace synergies well with the Madman, as it gives an amazing damage increase and also has a 35% chance to deal +100 bonus damage. The chance of it happening is a lot higher when combined with The Madman’s ultimate, Beserk. When activated, 2 attacks per second are usual at level 16, giving you a 58% chance to proc the bonus damage every second. These bonus attacks also mini-stun, which is useful to stop channelling spells, or homecoming stones. Shieldbreaker gives great damage and armour reduction on the enemy, however cannot be used in conjunction with Whispering Helm/Symbol of Rage, so choose between these wisely. Abyssal’s Skull however will stack with each of these, so is always a solid pickup.

Other useful items are those that combine survivability with utility such as Frostwolf’s Skull, and Geometer’s Bane, which provide decent stats to keep you alive. Another item which isn’t usually considered is Hellflower. Hellflower provides massive mana regeneration, and also allows The Madman to stalk into a team fight, and silence one of the enemy team, allowing your team to get a strong initiation. It will also prevent them from using items for 5 seconds, therefore is good to use on a carry to prevent them using their Shrunken Head.

Mike 'Hairboi' Lamming lends his knowledge to the Cadred readership with yet another hero guide. This time, Madman.

This column is the sole opinion of the author and does not represent the opinion of Heaven Media Ltd or the opinion of any affiliates.

Tips?

What Lane?

The Madman can be a game winning hero

The Madman can be played as a typical carry, in lane with Plague Rider, Glacius, Witch Slayer, Demented Shaman etc, or can take a lane solo by himself, last hitting with Stalk. Glacius is a very good hero to have on the same team as The Madman, even if not in the same lane, as one of The Madman’s main weaknesses is his mana pool. As long as he has a bottle, and access to a flying courier, he can take almost any lane solo. If you play solo mid lane however, you should be able to control the runes pretty easily, unless you’re against a blinking hero, and as such, use your judgement as to when to gank a side lane with a rune.

Getting the most utility out of Stalk and Barrel Roll.

As you snag a last hit with Stalk early game, attempt to move close to your enemy as well to damage them as you last hit, just make sure you’re back out of harass range once the stealth wears off. Once you’re confident you can play more aggressive, and you have room to do so, move in with Stalk, auto attack from behind your enemy, attempt to block him from moving back, getting in as many auto attacks as possible, follow up with a Barrel Roll, and proceed to get another three or four auto attacks in. Be cautious of doing this against heroes with easy to land stuns, however.

What to do during the Mid-Game.

The Madman can gank and can carry, however the trade-off is in the fact that if you’re ganking, you’re making less gold than if you’re free farming a lane. Therefore ganking will reduce your farm. As a compromise, you should aim to farm a lane with sufficient ward coverage to prevent incoming ganks, and once the enemy engages your team, teleport to the nearest tower to assist and clean up kills.

That's it for our the third guide in our series, next up you can expect to see the hugely popular Corrupted Disciple explained. Until then stay tuned for all the up to date news, brackets and matches taking place this month as HoN continues to grow.