Sometimes a 1 for 1 trade is the least worst option.
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I was, and my first post was obviously a little too generalized. I shouldn’t have said ‘never’.
My opinion typically comes on the heels of the mentality of the 1v1 trade being a positive thing. Too often I’ll see people dive behind a tower just to chase down that kill.
I am positively certain in this particular regard, a 1 for 1 is actually a bad idea. There’s this ridiculous notion in a good portion of the community that killing an enemy is the only way you’re getting value. However, this has to be challenged. That enemy has to go back to base while you still can use this opportunity to take lane soak, take camp, or score damage on the fort (which, unless they have Abathur, can’t be regenerated).
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I feel like the best generalized statement/logic tree I can make is:
- if they have a quest that death hurts and you do not, 1v1 is generally okay.
- if you’re a “special hero” like Murky or The Lost Vikings, or Rexxar (Misha) it is generally okay.
- Another special case: if you have global movement and think the fight will last a long time. Falstad, Dehaka, et cetera.
- If you think that your team is worse (personal skill and/or inter-team communication) it is usually an okay choice
- if you think your team is better, it is almost always a bad choice.
There are also roles to take into account and all that. But despite my “logic” looking like it doesn’t agree with you… I think you are correct, and there are to many people who “1 for 1” when it is at best an equal trade.
There are several ways of looking at this.
As a general rule of thumb, it is that 1v1 trading is never worth it.
-It is risky as hell(If you are forcing it ofcourse.)
-There are in general tons of things you could do other than fighting.
In everycase in HOTS everything is worth more XP than a kill.
Soaking lanes, taking camps, sieging etc etc.
-I mean even looking at “Important trades” as i noticed some people commented, how important really is a trade, your team comp should be made of all important parts. even if you kill their “Most important” member, they can just 360 the whole tactic and change up til their member is back.
And then the question comes, how important are you to the team now?
Are you apart of the sieging group? the global presence? the teamfighting group, either way you leave a weak spot in your team.
I’d say the rumours you heard about it never being worth the trade, is correct and i would live by that.
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I agree, the ONLY valid reason for 1v1 trade would be when YOU are FORCED into a fight which you feel you r not quite sure that you can safely disengage from, but you feel you can take one of theirs as u fall = Go for it
1 for 1 is ALWAYS better than dying ALONE.
n thts about it.
Or in some cases, taking out their healer in an over extended fight on objective that would force the enemy to back off ensuring you secure objective.
But still, I dont think its a good idea to go in a fight with “I will suicide attempt to kill their healer” in mind. If you die before getting the kill, its a HUGE loss
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I think this is what I should have stressed a lot more. A lot of these people who go to 1 for 1 will usually do so as though that’s the objective in mind. Honestly, WAY too many people in the game are focused around the idea of kills.
This scenario, for example, has happened way too often on me:
- Enemy Team grabs boss, which is now barreling down towards the keep.
- Allied and enemy team have even numbers and a team fight ensues.
- Allied team comes out on top with 1 to 3 hero kills and the enemy team starts retreating.
- Allied team decides to chase enemy team for the additional kills… despite the fact the boss is still wailing away at the keep.
Crazy right? 
But well, some people just dont understand that its the CORE that decides the win, not the NUMBER OF HEROES KILLED
Yep, along with the dreaded Greymane syndrome.
I see it a LOT with new Artanis players (whom you can typically tell are new because to them, any time is a good time to go all in, lol).
Alright I’m going to go over this as if we’re talking the contest of a contested objective without a winion wave forming
In which case I say it is entirely dependant on the roles of the two traded
So first of all, never sacrifice your main tank or your bruiser for anything, unless it’s a 2 for 1 with at least the enemy main tank as one of them
Same goes for your healer
However I do believe if one of your DPS Sacrifices themselves and guarantee’s a kill, well depends on the kill how worth it it was, I would happily sacrifice a graymane for instance if he secures a kill on the enemy healer because the DPS we lose is nulified by how much power the enemy lose, at least if the healer was a potent one.
I would say that the general rule is that if you are ahead its never worth it, if you are behind its usualy worth it as long as you are not a vital role for teamfights (that is healer or tank).
If you are a vital role its only worth it if the enemy lost the same role in the process.
And if 3 levels behind, even when being an important role and killing one that isnt its worth to trade. You otherwise would most likely have lost the teamfight anyway.
After all, if both of you die, if you were behind: you get a shorter respawn timer and more xp for the kill, 2 things that help at closing the gap. And with 3 levels behind, the xp gain between you and the enemy is big enough that you gained xp worth 3 kills compared to them.
If that happens 2x in short intervals, you are usualy just 1 level behind again which is enough to generaly close the gap.
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trading as a murky/lost viking for another hero is very good obviously, or against a cho’gall, there are other situations such as a trade leading to their last hero dying for the core to be exposed to guranteed win, or to trading for a hero to clear out the objective area, and letting your other hero that’s alive take the objective, or trading when u are behind in lvl, the enemy has to wait a longer time in death than you do, or trading to gain a talent tier sooner, you want to get to level 10 as soon as possible for the next team fight/objective, you can trade and get there assuming doing won’t let the enemy get to lvl 10 at the same time