So i'm an old player looking to expand my skills, by old i mean playing for a few years. So i realised i dont spend enough time thinking during games, has anyone got a base set of things they check every round in there head. Any thoughts tips ect to boosting my time management? Really would like some tips ~ xleadrzx
Hi, I'll take you through my thought process in a game. Before any champions are even deployed, I look at what faction(s) my opponent is playing. If I see IS, then I will try and deploy mostly melee champions to counteract the very popular Righteous Deflection, the ultimate ranged counter. If I see FS, then I will try and deploy one of my tough 3 champions as soon as possible (to counteract their abundance of DoT and poison clouds). If I see FW, I will try and get one of my magic champions out asap because I know some incorporeal or ethereal champions will be coming out soon. As the meta changes things you have to think about with the various factions will also change, but the more you play the more you recognize patterns in what hard counters each faction will be playing, and you can act pro-actively because you know they will be coming. When my opponent deploys his first champion, I look at it to see what kind of theme he's going for, if the champion gives any indication. If I see it's something like a Skeezick, then I will have in my head that ideally I want to rush my opponent before he can build up the Skeezick Rebellion racial. That is a specific example, in general you want to infer early on whether the theme your opponent is playing is strong early, or weak early, or strong late, or whatever, and react accordingly with your own playstyle. That's why ideally your own BG should be pretty flexible towards either turtling or going in for the rush. This point is kind of self-explanatory but I'll put it out there anyway, what champions you will want to deploy from your BG is entirely dependent on what champions your opponent has out (or has the potential to bring out) so always keep that in mind when you're thinking about what champion to deploy. Whenever an opponent deploys a champion, I always have a quick lookover the champion's abilities, immunities, basic attacks, and race, even if I've seen it over a hundred times, it's good to refresh your memory and prompt you to deploy the appropriate counter. The next stage in the game is deciding what you're doing. Are you hunkering down and waiting for him to come (when you know he is going to try and rush you) or are you preparing for your own rush when he is trying to get his theme rolling. The essential part of a good rush is being able to contest your opponent's font, and not have the champion (or relic) you are using to contest the font die the next turn (generally, rarely it will be worth it anyway). This is a lot more effective on maps where the font is not only essential for nora, but also a tactical position for deployment of the champions. That's why a map like Sundered Lands is perfect if you can start contesting your opponent's font from the beginning, and contesting the font is not so effective on a map like Forsaken Wastes where your opponent can deploy right next to your font anyway. When it comes to combat my thought process isn't as good or clear, and it gets a lot more complicated. But to dumb it down, I normally try to see which is the most essential champion my opponent has out, or the one he is trying to keep alive the most (you can normally tell which one it is) and see if I can kill it on my turn. If I can't, I look to the next champion I can kill and try and disable the most important one until I can deal with it (examples of disabling spells: whispers of the mind, gloomwater, hammer strike, etc...). I also look to see potential trade-offs between getting attacks off, or perhaps using that champ to move somewhere else. Oftentimes you will have the opportunity to contest the opponents font, or attack, and you have to decide which is the better option. Towards the late game, you always want to be looking to kill off the shrine. If you are winning and your champions are fighting his right outside his shrine's deployment zone, but it's still fairly tight, always look each turn to see whether you can do a surprise power turn and finish off the opponent's shrine and win the game, without giving him a chance to respond. Oftentimes people will be so focused on fighting the opponent's champions and killing them all that they will pass up an opportunity to actually kill off the shrine. That's the #1 objective in a game, so always keep it in mind. I hope some of this advice was useful to you and not too obvious, but this is a summary of some of my thought processes that go on in-game. Good luck! EDIT 1: So I realised I didn't speak too much on time management itself, which is a huge issue for me too. I came to realise that the most important thing to do when you find yourself stuck on your turn unsure what is the right move is to just DO SOMETHING. Get some attacks off, DEPLOY a champ, and use the turn. Not every turn has to be a super efficient killer where you get one of their champs and capture a font or whatever. Not every turn is going to be a masterpiece where you completely destroy your opponent and guarantee the win. Inevitably, some turns are going to end with you thinking "Firk Firk Firk what a Bane Shift turn now he's going to slaughter me" but that happens, and you don't know what runes your opponent has drawn or still has yet to reveal, so just do anything and bide your time.
Thank you that was very helpful, i'll remember that. I'm good at killing shrines, even if i'm losing game wise so i got that part covered. ^ and i agree with the last part. most definetly. It's okay you didnt speak about time management because the rest of it was helpful and i'll be able to quickly do all that in his and my turns.
