Learn to dodge, beginner's guide to counterplay

this thread is about skillshots, and specifically very powerful skillshots at many new players complain about or call "OP".

here i am going to discuss why these skills are NOT OP. these skills are 's charm pull hook and spear

first off the skills in question all work the same way they are straight line skill that stop at the first target hit and don't pass through minions

While the most obvious way to "dodge a skillshot like these would be to step out of its way. there is actually a much easier way that most bronze players don't do.

because these skill will hit minions.. if there is a minion between you and the opponent, you cant get hit. back when i first started playing i had people complain all the time these skills are OP when they are standing out in the open.

use your allied creep to your advantage

Then there is the most obvious way to dodge a skillshot.. which is infact, to get out of they way.

these rely's heavily on your reaction time and your ping as well as your knowledge of casting animations

for example, thresh's hook will display a large windup animation before casting, you wont know which direction he will cast it in.. but you know he will cast it. these are things you need to pay attention to.

naturally because of the amount of counterplay these skills have compared to most other skills in the game. getting hit by one will usually spell your death or at least a large loss of HP.

pull has a long cooldown and a medium range, but has very little preemptive animation for warning, blitz also does not really have the damage to make use use of his pull by himself. although blitz pull has a wide grab area, this also makes him easier to face with minions near by.

charm has a short range, and not much warning either, and unlike blitz she does have the damage , damage to follow up for the kill, it has a shorter cooldown, but the short range still allows for counterplay

hook also has a medium range and starts off while a high cooldown, he will also display a casting animation when casting although will not display the direction the hook will go. thresh donest usually have the damage to kill you alone after he lands a hook he does do more damage than blitz

and last is nidalee's spear seem to get the most hate out of all these skills, even in higher elos nidalee spear had a VERY long range and gives no real warning for the casting animation. however nids spear increased in damage with distance. so while a short range nid spear wont hit for much it wont provide you much time to dodge it either . where as a long range spear can take off a considerable portion of your hp but usually gives ample time to dodge for those watching for it the thing that most players facing nidalee dislike however is the fact that unlike the other skillshots in this list,, nids' spear has a 6 second cooldown. because of this people feel that nid only need to land 1 spear out of countless ones she throws in order to go in.

the thing that most players don't realize and what really balances out nida's spear, is the rest of her kit. nidalee's W is a trap which does negligible damage at all ranks, nidalee E is a self heal, and her R changes forms.

this means.. that nidalee's ONLY damaging ability in human form.. is her spear. so while a 6 second cooldown might seem like a short time. its nidalee only damaging ability.

to compensate for this nidalee's cougar form has 3 damaging abilities

takedown, pounce and swipe. all of which do rather low damage.

but the catch is, if nidalee lands that spear on you, both her pounce and takedown get stronger vs that "hunted" player.

this gives nidalee great burst but very little sustained damage in fights.

but the KEY part people don't seem to get is.. nidalee will not win any trades UNLESS hunted is proced. and the only way of procing hunted short of the player stepping on a trap.. is landing that spear.

so when you see nidalee MISS a spear.. you have 6 seconds in which nidalee cannot trade you. so use that time to go and take off as of her much hp as you can.. and ever after he spear comes back up you can generally keep on trading her because a short range spear wont hit for much.

playing aggressive vs nidalee also works well, nidalee has a VERY hard time CSing under tower and if there are minion between you and her she cant throw spears at your either.

in any case waiting for nid to start a fight is generally a bad idea, take the fight to her and she will most likely run

so i hope this helps all you new players out there having trouble with these skills. because although they are strong.. they all have counter play, and are NOT OP.

take care