Hogan

Hogan is a melee hero that can also throw an axe at flying foes. Hogan and Bacon have been best friends for so long, they're practically brothers! They work together, they eat together, and when evil forces destroyed their home, they decided to fight together. Enemies beware this dynamic man and pig duo and their amazing teamwork.

Currently Hogan exist in two forms **Beastmaster Hogan** and **Old Hogan** (the game just calls both "Hogan"). There are several differences between them - Beastmaster Hogan is an upgrade with many changes - but otherwise they are the same hero and they share the same leveling scale, set of hero tokens, ability upgrade requirements, etc. To understand more about the conversion process, see also How to get BeastMaster Hogan.

## Old Hogan

Unlocked at **World 1** Level 11, Cost **1500** Gems and starts at Awakening Rank **R1**.

## Skills / Abilities

Basic Attack - Melee

**Active skill: Bacon Toss**

* Hogan tosses Bacon into battle dealing explosive area damage.
* Targets: Ground, anywhere on map
* Lvl1 effect: deals a flat amount and stat-based Physical Damage to affected enemies, with 50% chance to stun each target for 5s, and refreshes cooldown of "Battle Bacon" ability.
* Lvl2 upgrade: World 1 Campaign Level 14 (needs hero level 10).
* Lvl2 effect: increases both flat and stat-based portions of damage by 50%, and extends AoE range by 20%.

**Passive 1: Axe Toss**

* Hogan gains a throwing axe with incredible accuracy.
* Targets: Ground and Flying, in medium range, preferentially to flying enemies
* Lvl1 effect: deals a flat amount of True Damage plus stat-based Physical Damage to a single enemy, aimed preferentially at flying units over ground ones, and furthest ahead
* Lvl2 upgrade: World 2 Campaign Level 34 (needs hero level 13).
* Lvl2 effect: doubles stat-based portion of damage.

**Passive 2: Bouncing Axe**

* Axe may bounce between enemies.
* Targets: Self, persistent
* Lvl1 effect: each Axe Toss has a 30% chance to bounce to a new target, in small range, and can even bounce multiple times! (usually with negligible damage though, since it uses the stats of the target rather than Hogan's, and many enemies have 0 for that stat)
* Lvl2 upgrade: Shattered Realms S4 (needs hero level 16).
* Lvl2 effect: raises bounce chance by a third.

**Passive 3: Fast Chop**

* Hogan can now attack with intense fury. Both attack and movement speed increased.
* Targets: Self, persistent
* Lvl1 effect: when engaged, increase move speed by 10% and cast speed (of abilities - unclear what this actually is) by 20%.
* Lvl2 upgrade: Shattered Realms S26 (needs hero level 19).
* Lvl2 effect: doubles effects of speed-ups.

## Talents (Awaken)

**Splash Axe (rank 3)**

* Hogan's auto attack will trigger axe throw.
* Effect: each melee attack also throws an axe to a new target (preferentially to flying enemies) in medium range, which further has a 40% chance to trigger a new axe (which also itself has the same chance to trigger another, and so on...though this is not a "bounce" with negligible damage since the attacks come from Hogan).

**Battle Bacon (rank 3)**

* Bacon gains a spinning axe that damages and slows nearby enemies.
* Effect: ...complicated. Kind of an aura (from Hogan's perspective), kind of an ability (from Bacon's). The deets: (1) axes do stat-based Physical Damage over time (30s), with a 7s cooldown; (2) targets only ground enemies, though once started it can affect both ground and flying; (3) affects enemies in a small AoE range; (4) applies slow for half a second on affected enemies; (5) can be cast even when Hogan is dead; (6) actually it is his pig (Bacon) that has the spinning axe ability, not Hogan (e.g., Hogan himself receives no damage reflection from W4 enemies, though Bacon can be slowed by reflection from time construct - yet can never be targeted by enemies directly; also, Bacon cannot be hasted, though does inherit Hogan's stats including buffs), so basically this is an aura causing Bacon to follow around behind Hogan, with normal movespeed, triggering axes when enemies are close enough to him (Bacon, not Hogan); (7) whenever Hogan uses his active Bacon Toss, it also refreshes the CD of Bacon's spinning axes as well, thus allowing them to stack if enemies are present.

**Battle Endurance (rank 5)**

* Hogan's basic attack speed is increased and his auto attack gains lifesteal.
* Effect: basic melee cooldown is reduced by 30% and heals half the damage done.

**Friend of Animals (rank 6)**

* Hogan makes all summoned animals stronger.
* Note: (the word *animals* is misleading)
* Effect: all summoned creatures - including Fee's wolves, Connie's bunnies, Obsidian's rock buddies, Osan's Broto skeletons summoned by W3 Necro Tower, golemns spawned by meteors or summon potions, but NOT including Masamune's clones, or Bolton summoning Obsidian - gain buffs of 100-fold HP, tripled speed, and 20-fold damage. Broto recieves a somewhat smaller buff. IMPORTANT: this effect lasts basically for as long as Hogan is alive, but quickly relapses (<1s) if he is not alive to keep it going. Additionally, note that summoned units do not scale stat-based portions of damages at all, only flat portions - hence, it's nowhere near as strong as you'd wish it to be - and also haste has a cap at 325%, from any sources that combine, so putting summoned units under a haste field makes little difference beyond the already tripled speed of this talent.

See also Awakening suggestions.

## Additional information

**Roles**:

* **Official**: Melee, Nuker
* **Unofficial** (player type / game mode):
	+ **Veterans** (tournaments): nothing notable, except extremely rarely buffing summoned animals
	+ **Middle** (RS, events): take up space
	+ **Early** (initial campaign): nothing

**Comparisons / Rankings**:

* **Life / HP**: average - e.g., more than Masamune, less than Obsidian
* **Armor**: none
* **Move speed**: average

* **Damage capabilities**:
	+ **Amount**: lowest #1
	+ **Speed**: fast
	+ **Range**: average
	+ **Forms**: physical and true-damage, but almost purely a physical melee+ranged jack-of-all-trades-but-master-of-none hero
	+ **Affects**: ground+air, with thrown axes (especially R3 talent) targeted preferentially at flying enemies furthest ahead
* **Tournament blessing:** average stat boost, making his lifesteal (R5) and blessed HP a solid force to be reckoned with.
* **Greatest strengths**: (1) lifesteal (R5); (2) ability to simultaneously deal melee+ranged damage (R3); (3) jack-of-all-trades having many kinds of abilities, including focused damage and AoE; (4) friend of animals uniquely boosts summoned creatures
* **Greatest weaknesses**: (1) lacks armor; (2) damage is all almost purely physical; (3) summoned creature damage or life is rarely Meta in any situation; (4) his stats are tuned so extremely low that he has virtually no use outside of tournaments when blessed

**Daily Trial**: visit Hogan's Daily Trial page

**Skins**: visit Skins page

Detailed Skills, Talents and Stats Info here.

## Ideal Ranks & Teams

* **early game**: none - you should avoid him entirely. Before R5 he is completely useless because he gets killed in a matter of seconds against anything. At R5, he will become very durable and will provide slow and stun, though it would take about a month of training in RS to get him there.

* **ideal rank for tournaments**: R5 for when blessed (R6 often not needed), though R6 opens him up to be useful outside of his week (which historically has been very rarely useful).

* **ideal team for lower leagues**: R5-6 Hogan + good generic + good situational utility hero; though no special synergies to have to pay attention to, so depends more on the situation (world map & towers, how many exits, fliers, bosses, etc.).

* **perfect team for a GM**: R5-6 Hogan + good generic + good situational utility hero.

* **Leveling guide:**
	+ For her tournament blessed week: **high priority** => stats translates into damage, and via lifesteal therefore into health, even if he doesn't make as good a usage of them as other heroes.
	+ For other situations: **no priority** => even as a summoning support, his stats matter not at all b/c he cannot survive being in combat - place him well away from all danger and pretend like he's not even there.

## Commentary

As a "friend to animals", this man with a pet pig - maybe a hipster living his authentic life? (or a woodsman doing...whatever with that animal) - Hogan seems a very versatile hero, who can do a little bit of everything (melee, ranged, AoE bomb), although unfortunately he does nothing WELL. Basically a trap for early players, and best to be avoided.

* **Cost**: is he cheap, or expensive? Requires very little to reach the same rank and level as other heroes, although requires much higher level or rank to do anything relevant to your game. Don't get him.

* **Initial (early game)**: ★ when you can buy him but gets (far) worse from there. In fairness, when he first came out - as the sole hero in the game and therefore in comparison to barracks units - he might have been good(-ish); and like Connie after having been reworked he's now great as BeastMaster Hogan, but Old Hogan sucks so bad - seriously, don't get him.

* **Later (mid game)**: <☆ even if you accidentally bought him, be grateful for the help in unlocking worlds with hero awakening tokens, but do not use him unless you have him at R5 where he is finally durable. \*Very\* seriously, do \*not\* get him.

* **End game****:** meh.
	+ **Tournaments**: required when blessed, believe it or not, he's actually good in this game mode, and even sees rare usage outside of his blessed week too.
	+ **Realm Siege & events**: in a word, nope.

Overall: Except for his handsome mug, he has virtually no redeemable qualities whatsoever. This himbo should be skipped entirely until you want him for tournament play later on. EXCEPT, now that he has a BeastMaster form, perhaps consider buying him earlier on, and ranking him up solely in preparation for that? But for the love of all that is holy don't expect to actually USE him for anything until then!!! Well, you have been warned. Except get him, b/c BeastMaster Hogan is great!:-P

## Beastmaster Hogan

Unlocked by beating **World 7** Level 210, and paying **1000** Gems to convert Hogan to Beastmaster form - inheriting whatever rank and levels he had before, while gaining his Beastmaster abilities.

## Skills / Abilities

Basic Attack - Melee

**Active skill: Bacon Toss (Boosted)**

* Bacon's got a jetpack now.
* Targets: Ground and Flying, anywhere on map.
* Lvl1 effect: deals a flat amount and stat-based Physical Damage to affected enemies, with 60% chance to stun each target for 5s, and grounds flying enemies for 4s (still refreshes cooldown of "Battle Bacon" ability).
* Lvl2 upgrade: World 1 Campaign Level 14 (needs hero level 10).
* Lvl2 effect: increases both flat and stat-based portions of damage by 17%, reduces cooldown by 17%, and increases stun chance to 70%.

**Passive 1: Axe Toss (Energized)**

* Hogan's axes fly faster than ever before.
* Targets: Ground and Flying, in medium range, preferentially to flying enemies
* Lvl1 effect: deals a flat amount of True Damage plus stat-based Physical Damage to a single enemy, aimed preferentially at flying units over ground ones, and furthest ahead
* Lvl2 upgrade: World 2 Campaign Level 34 (needs hero level 13).
* Lvl2 effect: increases stat-based portion of damage by 10%, and adds 2% chance to deal critical hit dealing ~2000-fold more damage than normal.

**Passive 2: Bouncing Axe (Elastic)**

* Hogan's axe is now guaranteed to bounce at least once.
* Note: axe is NOT guaranteed to bounce at least once.
* Targets: Self, persistent
* Lvl1 effect: each Axe Toss has a 50% chance to bounce to a new target, in small range, and can even bounce multiple times! (usually with negligible damage though, since it uses the stats of the target rather than Hogan's, and many enemies have 0 for that stat)
* Lvl2 upgrade: Shattered Realms S4 (needs hero level 16).
* Lvl2 effect: finally as advertised, axe must bounce to new target, and can continue to bounce multiple times but the chance for sequential bounces is reduced to 36%.

**Passive 3: Fast Chop**

* Hogan attacks with more fury than before. His attack and movement speed are increased and his attacks gain a chance to do critical damage.
* Targets: Self, persistent
* Lvl1 effect: when engaged, increase move speed by 30% and cast speed (of abilities - unclear what this actually is) by 60%.
* Lvl2 upgrade: Shattered Realms S26 (needs hero level 19).
* Lvl2 effect: increases move speed by another third, cast speed by another 12.5%, and add chance to do a critical strike.
* Details of crits: each time Hogan does a basic melee attack, increase the critical chance of it from 0% -> 2% -> 4% -> 5% -> 6% (max). When unengaged (either move away or enemy he was attacking is killed), critical chance is reset to 0. Critical attack deals additional 3665-fold damage, dealt as magic, and Hogan does not gain lifesteal from it.

## Talents (Awaken)

**unnamed (hidden) special ability (starts with)**

* (game provides no description)
* Effect: When Hogan is within small range of Bacon, he receives a small stat-based (so increases with blessed bonus) heal every 2s.
* Note: the above may no longer be accurate - the amount healed has apparently changed and is a very low amount now?

**unnamed (hidden) special ability (starts with)**

* (game provides no description)
* Effect: In addition to Old-Hogan's pet pig Bacon, now a boar also follows Hogan around. They don't do anything - e.g., they do not engage enemies, and cannot be targeted or killed by any means - until gaining Beastmaster Hogan's Battle Bacon R3 Talent, at which point they act as an aura that follows around Hogan with normal movespeed. Both Bacon and the boar inherit damage stats from Hogan, including the blessed bonus.

**Splash Axe (rank 3)**

* Hogan's auto attack will trigger axe throw.
* Effect: (same as Old-Hogan) each melee attack also throws an axe to a new target (preferentially to flying enemies) in medium range, which further has a 40% chance to trigger a new axe (which also itself has the same chance to trigger another, and so on...though this is not a "bounce" with negligible damage since the attacks come from Hogan).

**Battle Bacon (rank 3)**

* Bacon gains a spinning axe that damages and slows nearby enemies.
* Effect: extending Old-Hogan's version, this one works every 2s dealing small physical damage to all enemies in nearby medium AoE range, apply 50% slow for 4s, lasting for 4s, and ground flying enemies for 3s. As before, targets only ground enemies but can affect fliers as well, and cast even when Hogan is dead. In addition to Bacon, Beastmaster Hogan's boar ALSO gains a new ability, every 6s consistently dealing tiny physical damage in medium range over 3s and apply 50% slow for 4s, cast even when Hogan is dead.

**Battle Endurance (rank 5)**

* Hogan's basic attack speed is increased and his auto attack gains lifesteal.
* Effect: basic melee cooldown is reduced by 30% and heals 80% of the damage done, either from his melee directly (excluding crits) or axes triggered by it.

**Friend of Animals (rank 6)**

* Hogan makes all summoned animals stronger.
* Note: (the word *animals* is misleading)
* Effect: (same as Old-Hogan) all summoned creatures - including Fee's wolves, Connie's bunnies, Obsidian's rock buddies, skeletons summoned by W3 Necro Tower, golemns spawned by meteors or summon potions, but NOT including Masamune's clones, or Bolton summoning Obsidian - gain buffs of 100-fold HP, tripled speed, and 20-fold damage. IMPORTANT: this effect lasts basically for as long as Hogan is alive, but quickly relapses (<1s) if he is not alive to keep it going. Additionally, note that summoned units do not scale stat-based portions of damages at all, only flat portions - hence, it's nowhere near as strong as you'd wish it to be. Also, haste has a cap at 325%, from any sources that combine, so putting summoned units under a haste field makes little difference beyond the already tripled speed of this talent.

**Battle Cry (rank 7)**

* Hogan intermittently calls a giant boar to stampede across the map that stuns a strong enemy and temporarily increases the effects of his "Friend of Animals" Talent.
* Effect: included as a Talent but is actually a new passive melee Ability that: (1) deals a small amount of physical damage to Ground targets, (2) gives all summoned units the buffs of +50% speed and +10% damage for 3.5s; (3) summons a boar at entry (the one of Hogan's current attack target), that moves extremely fast, has 1 HP, though 100% physical and magical armor, and deals large damage, and will run to exit until it hits Hogan's target, plus while running with <1s cooldown will deal half physical damage to the nearest ground enemy in tiny range, and when hitting target, deals very large damage and stun for 6s, then turns into defense state for 10s. In defense state, move speed is decreased slightly, and stops 2 nearest enemies performing a melee/ranged attack and dealing slight physical damage to all ground enemies in small range; (4) when there are flying enemies, summon a flying pig at an exit - the one with a flying enemy closest to it - again moving extremely fast and dealing similar damage to the boar. The boar and flying pig are not summons and cannot be targeted, nor can be affected by AoE (e.g. by W5 aqua slime's slow), but the boar can be killed by melee with True Damage by a W3 Pharaoh Guardian (the only known thing that can kill/affect him).

See also Awakening suggestions.

## Additional information

**Short Tips**:

* BM Hogan - To ensure success and take full advantage of his new R3 talent (biggest boost); ensure that Bacon is engaging enemies in order to ground fliers and slow enemies. This is why Hogan can be dead or alive because it is Bacon who does the work.
* BM Hogan - ensure that Bacon is more or less centre of the lane as the area of effect for ground fliers and slowing enemies may not fully reach the entire lane especially if Bacon somehow runs off to the side of a lane to engage in an enemy.

## Leveling

(Shared by both forms of Hogan)
It costs 23 149 Elixir to level up Hogan from level 1 to 25, and 801 902 from level 1 to the maximum level of 40.

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