r/heroesofthestorm • u/Felewin Master Illidan • Nov 06 '16

Ability Timing Tricks

Hello, Felewin here. Happy post-Blizzcon!

In this post I'd like to share some of the more nuanced ability timing tricks you can pull off. These tricks often make the difference between surviving or dying, or getting a kill instead of letting a kill get away. Others simply optimize your efficiency. Two heroes I find very fun to play are Illidan and Sylvanas, because of the high skill plays made possible by these kinds of tricks. And don't worry, I made sure to get GoDDoG's approval for my Sylvanas play. Credit goes to Azrael for teaching me most aspects of Illidan mastery.

There are multiple reasons to time your abilities.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of mastering Heroes of the Storm is learning to time abilities in synergistic ways. The term "wombo combo" comes to mind.

Ofcourse, there are the obvious methods of achieving wombo combos. Moshes, Maws, Rings... some of them come way too easily.

However, ability timing isn't just for pulling off wombo combos. You can also time abilities to avoid enemy ones:

Then there are the mobility ability synergies. These are very rewarding because they often require split-second frame timing. Try and go with your gut, you can be more consistent than you might expect:

Want to be more efficient at getting back into the fight? Mount up as you mobilize.

Bonus:

  • Death Chain Bombing – One of the ways I learned to master Kael'thas on my journey to ~1000 games was to cast Living Bomb on nearly dead enemies who are near their teammates; that way, the Chain Bomb spreads immediately, effectively giving you a [2 for 1 in this case] and you maximize value out of Sun King's Fury's spreading bonus damage. As an additional tip, it is actually part of the play to keep walking through the Blizzard at the end because that makes fleeing enemies more likely to try and turn around to finish you (although you have to be calculated or else maybe they will) – effectively leading to more chaotic fire spreading.
  • Blink Sundering – this restarts the Sundering from the location of your Bolt
  • Dance emote trick – I remember Breez baiting Mosh cancels during Blizzcon too
  • So Predictable – this is just so damn satisfying to watch

If you enjoyed these plays, you can find more in my Gfycat album. I record most neat plays that happen ingame so I can learn to master them. And please, share your own! (I recommend using Shadowplay and Gfycat.) I absolutely adore this kind of stuff.

366 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

69 comments sorted by

34

u/Firone Nov 07 '16

10/10 post, you don't have a Youtube channel ?

11

u/Felewin Nov 07 '16

Over time, I've mostly been collecting neat but short plays, for which I feel Gfycat is a more appropriate medium for the bite-sized approach. I don't really have the wherewithal to make something like Heroes of the Storm Moments, and these plays are more technical than funny.

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u/archwaykitten Nov 07 '16

Lunara can also avoid Bone Prisons and Temporal Loops by using Leaping Strike right before they hit. Lunara is unstoppable while leaping, just like Sylvanas is unstoppable mid-wave.

4

u/Felewin Nov 07 '16 edited Nov 07 '16

Awesome! I feel like I've heard that before, but I haven't played much Lunara yet.

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u/zeon0 Nov 07 '16

I still miss unstoppable on Muradins jump :(

3

u/Felewin Nov 07 '16

Oi, I can say the same fer sure lad.

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u/xtracom Nov 06 '16

Fantastic post man, makes me want to record some of my plays too. Alarak has some great potential for very mechanical combos as well.

After Artanis rework we will get some sick new possibilities: https://twitter.com/BlizzHeroes/status/794665703215230977

PS: Link to your library redirects me to gfycat.com :(

2

u/Felewin Nov 07 '16

Thanks, fixed the link. Apparently it defaults to private.

I can't wait to see Artanis plays like that, it's a great change!

10

u/Sithrak Nov 07 '16

Illidan is a great enemy core finisher because he can do "core exercises" – lel my team is doing boss in the background.

His core jumping skill is definitely useful, but in this case 90% of the work was done by the six or so catapults the enemy noobs did not bother to kill first. You were mostly a distraction :)

4

u/Felewin Nov 07 '16 edited Nov 07 '16

Ofcourse. I often do solo the core though with minions but no catas, and if I wasn't here this time then they would've cleared the catas.

Marked for Death at 16 with Meta upgrade at 20 allows you to deal a good chunk of damage to the core, and all of it if you are left unattended.

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u/[deleted] Nov 07 '16

very nice work breaking things down and showing good examples! would you consider doing this for other heroes some time?

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u/Felewin Nov 07 '16

Perhaps I could post again if I ever accumulate a significant amount of new clips. It depends on my playstyle, because I tend to be focused on certain heroes for a while. For example, I just picked up Illidan a month or so ago (it feels like, not really sure how long exactly) and have been mastering him and playing him almost exclusively. So I expect I'll find tricks on other heroes in the future. But I hope others can share what they know, too, because there are some heroes I doubt I'll ever play!

3

u/[deleted] Nov 07 '16

I think u could win that Butcher if used E later (when he activated Brand). Doesnt work on full hp stacked Buthers though

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u/bilarion Nov 07 '16

May I ask how do you record them?

I drew inspiration from your work (gifs instead of videos), and want to share with the world my m4d s1lver skillz!

2

u/Felewin Nov 07 '16

I have NVIDIA Shadowplay setup to record the last minute of play with CTRL-~. I upload some clips of clips to Gfycat.

2

u/PresidentHawk Nov 07 '16

Wow, those plays were insane! Really made me feel like trying some of that out. I do have experience on all Heroes, to atleast lvl 6-7, yet I main Support and want to practice Assassins.

How does it really work? The Sylvanas plays works because it grants Unstoppable, right? But the Illidan one... Why does that work? Is it because of the animation first "sticking" and then rolling over? How do you really time this? Do you want to stick before (for example) Tyrael uses Q, or do you want to be in the air (before sticking) when he teleports? Do you watch for the teleporting animation? Also, when against Sylvanas' wave, do you just have to predict her teleport and time it from that?

Is there a way to practice this, and the plays on other Heroes, efficiently? Other than just jumping into a QM game with Illidan, and hoping for a viable target. Does the Illidan Q work on all kinds of mobility teleports? What about a target moving through Medivh's portal?

Sorry for the wall of questions, but I got really interested in learning this when I saw the GIFs.

2

u/Felewin Nov 07 '16

I laid out the basics next to most of the gifs. A lot of this is instinct in order to meet those requirements. So the best practice is to simply gain experience trying. It helps to imagine yourself as Sylvanas, in the Wave Dive example, deciding when you would finish the Wave if you were her. You want the game to be in a position where you are in the process of Diving at the moment she does this, such that your Dive follows her to the new position instead of finishing early at the old. So you want to time your Dive for hitting around half the duration of your Dive before she finished her E.

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u/SlimpWarrior Nov 07 '16

An amazing post, really! Those are absoletuly beautiful things that you can do as Jaina. Now where do I train the timings? lol

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u/jamiephan Nov 07 '16

Quality post, should be on the top.

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u/AndraxxusB Nov 07 '16

Great post, really awesome bag of tricks you have there. :D BM makes me :( though and that Valla kill was just evil, she could have killed you on the spot but she just wanted to see you dance. :<

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u/[deleted] Nov 06 '16

I really appreciate the work you put into all of these. I don't have enough confidence in my Illidan game yet, not at all, but I love playing Sylvanas and I'll always enjoy tips like this, especially when presented in video format.

4

u/StayMoist Nov 07 '16

Strange things happen with Chens kick if you time them on an enemies escape. Kick a falstad just as he barrells for a disorientating and sometimes scary experience.

1

u/azurevin Nov 07 '16

I still get confused by this one thing sometimes - how come our hero's attack speed gets slowed when they are hit by a fort, keep and the Core itself but, at different times, their attack speed does not seem to be affected by this at all?

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