I get that learning to stutter-step is really really important, particularly on heroes that do a lot of auto attacking like Tanks and your basic Ranged DPS folks. I’m starting to get the hang of this skill (using my main, Zagara), and I’m noticing a marked improvement in my effectiveness already! Huzzah! All well and good.
But… how does it work with a Mage hero?
Like, if I’m playing Jaina, most of my damage is coming from my spells, and specifically spell combos, right? So is it less about constantly moving and getting all the auto-attacks in that you can and more constantly moving in-between dropping your spells?
Furthermore, how does it work with characters that already can move while shooting, like Tracer or Lucio? What about characters with REALLY FAST auto-attacks like Tychus, or Greymane with a lot of Inner Beast stacks? How does it work with a character like Zarya who attacks continuously?
Is it less important or completely unimportant with low-damage Healers (I’m looking at you, Morales)?
Any help appreciated.
It is still useful for mages/healers. If you have the opportunity to autoattack someone (without risk ofc), go for it. Every bit of addional damage is beneficial.
Tracer/Lucio have no need for stutterstep/aren’t able to.
Also, the faster your hero attacks, the harder/less effective is stutter stepping.
Well executed Stutterstepping adds mobility without losing damage. I don’t think it is possible to do perfect stutterstepping with Tychus/Zarya/Tass so I think you can ignore it with heroes that have super fast attack speed.
This really isn’t something I’d worry about with mages and non-AA heroes.
There are some where stutter stepping is a detriment like Tychus.
The heroes you really should be focused on stutter stepping with is something like Raynor, Valla, or possibly even melee heroes.
Basically, any time you can safely auto attack something, you should do it. Doesn’t matter who you are, as long as it’s safe. Morales, Kel’Thuzad, definitely should AA when someone is within their safe range. You don’t need to always be moving, you just want to be safe. So don’t worry about casting a spell and moving and casting another one, just worry about always being in a good position. If that means standing still, go for it. Usually the right position is moving, though. Especially if someone with skillshots is waiting for you to self-root while you try to pop off some juicy KTZ/chromie combo or something, it’s good to throw them off and move a lot.
Tanks are a great way to learn stutter stepping, so are ranged AA. I prefer tanks, because it’ll teach you how to position really well. You’ll understand tank threat ranges, and on the frontline you’ll experience the threat ranges of a lot of other heroes, constantly. Then, you can learn about how to use positioning in the most aggressive of ways: Bodyblocking. Stutter stepping while maintaining a bodyblock is one of the heights of tank mechanical achievement. And it transfers beautifully to any other hero you play, especially melee assassins: any time you can afford the aggressive position you can simultaneously trap your target with your body while you kill them.
3 Likes
There was a change a while back where they specifically reduced mage basic attack dmg in order to make the player focus more on using abilities instead. So, I’d say, as it is right now, maintaining good positioning is more vital than getting in a few measly basic attacks.
Depends how much auto attack damage the hero does. For example it is near useless on Kelthuzard (without his auto attack talent) and Probius. With those heroes you want to devote full attention to casting abilities as that will make up most of your damage.
Mephisto is a rare case. His default auto attack (no talents) is trash tier and focusing on Skull Missile and Lightning Nova is far more important. However if you take some of his auto attack talents it greatly improves the value of him stutter stepping.