Cursed Hollow Map Guide

Cursed Hollow is a 3-lane Map belonging to the Nexus universe. The signature Objective of this Map are Tributes. Whenever a team gets 3 Tributes, the Raven Lord casts a Curse on the enemy team, weakening enemy Minions and disabling enemy Structures.

Here you can find one or more formations that are viable on this Map. Keep in mind that positions in lane are not strict and will often change based on the situation.

A good formation for Cursed Hollow is 1-1-3:

• 3 Heroes cover the side lane where the allied Bruiser Camp is or, alternatively, the side lane near the next Objective;
• 1 Hero covers the middle lane;
• 1 Hero, the Offlaner, covers the other side lane.

Another good formation for Cursed Hollow is 1-3-1:

• 1 Hero, preferably ranged, covers the lane where the enemy Siege Camp is;
• 3 Heroes cover the middle lane and roam when possible;
• 1 Hero, the Offlaner, covers the other side lane.

• At 1:00 minute or whenever available, if the allied Siege Camp is in the same lane as the next Tribute location, start clearing the allied Bruiser Camp and capture it as soon as possible. To make this Mercenary Camp join the lane in front of allied Minions, capture it at 1:30 minutes or immediately after a wave of Minions spawned.
• At 1:00 minute or whenever available, if the allied Siege Camp is NOT in the same lane as the next Tribute location, start clearing the allied Siege Camp and capture it as soon as possible. To make this Mercenary Camp join the lane behind allied Minions, capture it at 1:35 minutes or 5 seconds after a wave of Minions spawned.
• At 2:00 minutes or right after a Tribute has been collected, if the allied Siege Camp is in the same lane as the next Tribute location, start clearing the allied Siege Camp and capture it slightly before the next Tribute spawns. To make this Mercenary Camp join the lane behind allied Minions, capture it at 2:35 minutes or 5 seconds after a wave of Minions spawned.
• At 2:00 minutes or right after a Tribute has been collected, if the allied Siege Camp is NOT in the same lane as the next Tribute location, start clearing the allied Bruiser Camp and capture it about slightly before the next Tribute spawns. To make this Mercenary Camp join the lane in front of allied Minions, capture it at 2:30 minutes or immediately after a wave of Minions spawned.
• If you want to contest the next Tribute, be there in time with 4 Heroes while 1 Hero defends enemy Mercenaries and then joins the team at the Objective. If it is the first Tribute of the game, the Offlaner can keep soaking.
• If you want to give the next Tribute, poke with a couple of Heroes and let the rest of your team push in the opposite lane from the Objective.
• When you reach 3 Tributes, push side lanes. Do not forget to soak in this phase.
• If you lose the Objective, try to save as many Forts and Keeps as possible. In case the enemy team is playing grouped, however, you must immediately retreat from the lane near them while your teammates get value elsewhere.
• After 10:00 minutes, whenever your team has an advantage while there is no Objective to contest or within the last 15 seconds of an allied Curse, you can capture a Boss Camp, then capture the other Boss Camp if available, and then push with the last Boss you captured. Avoid doing it earlier if you do not have a dedicated team composition.
• If you are fairly confident that the enemy team is capturing a Boss Camp, start clearing the other one. This strategy is meant to deny a double Boss Camp to the enemy team. If it becomes too dangerous (because the enemy team was not actually capturing a Boss Camp or because you started the other Boss Camp too late), stop doing it.

As shown in the image below, Cursed Hollow has a total of 6 Mercenary Camps:

• 1 allied/enemy Siege Camp and 1 allied/enemy Boss Camp in the top lane;
• 2 allied/enemy Bruiser Camps in the middle lane;
• 1 allied/enemy Boss Camp and 1 allied/enemy Siege Camp in the bottom lane.

Contrary to some other Maps, Mercenary Camps on Cursed Hollow do not disappear from the battlefield during the Objective phase or right after it ends.

Mercenary Camps indicated with a red icon are immune to Bribe effects.

This type of Mercenary Camp features 2 Giants. Once captured, it spawns the same units fighting for your team in the corresponding lane. When possible, push with them to get more value.

Instead of attacking enemies with Basic Attacks, Giants throw stones at them. These stones can be dodged, so it is possible to capture them without taking any damage. Once captured, they are capable of damaging enemy Structures without getting in their range. Giants deal 100% bonus damage to Structures.

This type of Mercenary Camp features 3 Knights and 1 Wizard. Once captured, it spawns the same units fighting for your team in the corresponding lane. When possible, push with them to get more value.

Right after being captured and while in lane, the Wizard creates a Spell Armor field around him which reduces some of the damage taken by Minions, Mercenaries, and Heroes within range. Avoid fighting the enemy team if they still have a Wizard helping them!

This type of Mercenary Camp features 1 Grave Golem. Once captured, it spawns the same unit fighting for your team in the corresponding lane. When possible, push with it to get more value.

While in combat, the Sand Golem will use Mega Smash (10-second cooldown) to damage and Stun all enemies in melee range and Binding Roots (15-second cooldown) to damage and Root enemies who get hit by them.

Cursed Hollow features 2 Watch Tower: they are located near Siege Camps, providing vision on all the paths to get there when the Fort in the adjacent side lane is still up.

Securing a Watch Tower provides your team with greater vision, allowing you to keep an eye on enemy movements in that part of the battlefield. Watchtowers can be captured similarly to defeated Mercenary Camps, by standing in the area until your team gains control.

Watch Towers controlled by the enemy team are extremely dangerous, especially when there are bushes nearby, therefore you should think twice before contesting them. If you do not have mobility tools at your disposal and your teammates are not nearby to help you, you should definitely not try to capture a Watch Tower as you will only risk to die for no reason. Staying alive is more important than getting vision.

The signature Objective of Cursed Hollow consists of Tributes. The first team who gets 3 Tributes will cause a Curse to be cast upon enemies. You should push during it as it brings enemy Minions down to 1 Health and disables enemy Structures for 70 seconds. In order to collect a Tribute, Heroes have to channel for 6 seconds.

Collect Tributes The Raven Lord will periodically create tributes. Gather them for your team!

Curse Your Enemies Upon capturing three tributes, the Raven Lord will curse your enemies.

Cursed Forts and Minions Cursed forts will not attack, and cursed minions are reduced to 1 health.

Tributes can spawn in 6 possible locations, with each Objective phase having only 1 Tribute active. We can look at the Tribute locations as organized in 2 rows (top and bottom) and 3 columns (left, middle, and right). For the sake of spawning rules, every 3 Tributes belong to a separate set (for example, the second set contains the 4th, 5th, and 6th spawn).

The spawning rules for Tributes are:

• the first Tribute is always in the middle column, either top (B) or bottom (E);
• a Tribute cannot spawn in the same spot as the previous one;
• 3 consecutive Tributes cannot spawn in the same row;
• Tributes in the same set (explained above) cannot spawn in the same column.

Every 3 seconds, the Core will spawn a Curse under a nearby enemy Hero. If they are Cursed, they take 5% maximum Health as damage and their Armor is reduced by 75 for 4 seconds.

To win the game on Cursed Hollow, you should count on any of the following win conditions:

• Boss Camp,
• Split-push.

• Use the first Healing Fountain (2-minute cooldown) at or before 1:00 minute because the first Objective on this Map activates at 3:00 minutes, so you will have it back in time for that.
• Depending on where the next Tribute is, you should decide if you want to contest it or not. Tributes on the enemy side of the battlefield are harder to contest whereas Tributes on your side of the battlefield are easier to contest.
• While active, the Curse disables enemy Structures. When attacking, use it to dive when possible. When defending, expect the enemy team to dive.
• If you have 2 Tributes and you just wiped the enemy team while contesting a third Tribute, do not collect that Tribute immediately! Instead, capture a Boss Camp and then collect the Tribute.
• Global Heroes should ideally take care of the lane that is farther away from the next Objective location, so that they can use their global tool to quickly join their team during the next Objective phase.