Teach me how to play ranged assassins in ARAM

General Discussion
1

I do significantly worse in ARAM than in regular games, since I’m a more macro focused player.

I can do okay as tank, healer, or bruiser in ARAM. But I find that I can’t play ranged assassins at all in ARAM other than poking as Junkrat, Li Ming, or Falstad. As any other ranged assassin, it seems like as soon as I get into range to get in one auto attack or one ability, half of my health bar is already gone.

It feels like I’m stuck in the backline, and there’s no way of flanking out of position targets without also getting into a vulnerable position myself.

I don’t mind playing games as ranged assassins in QM games without tanks or healers. In these QM games, I can easily roam around ganking people, then hearthing back and repeat. But in ARAMs, I just feel so helpless, like any second I could just suddenly die without even realizing what happened.

2

Spam ? :smiley:

That’s about it, focus on 2 or 3 abilities to count CD on and then “open rapid fire with all cannons”, that’s what ARAM is anyway who cares lol

3

I think it’s a great place to learn exactly what you are talking about.

Bait, move, straffe, and learn when to go all in.

So many player have no clue how to really play ranged. They thinks it’s just pew pew, and it isn’t.

Later, at higher ranks, you have to do all this, plus do it while imgaining their might be an enemy in that bush, or in that position. Basically, the skill set is the same, but the opponents get way way better at bluffing you.

So, it’s normal to feel like you do, but there are ways around it, and lots to learn

3 Likes
4

Right click enemies?

5

Any range hero with stacks, and you win the video game.

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6

I think the way people play is different in ARAM than in regular games. It seems like in regular games, people tend to focus the tank or the healer, and the ranged assassins can kite around and almost never get hit. But in ARAM, people focus the ranged assassins. I’ve had an ARAM game as Leoric recently where I just sat in the middle of the enemy team and nobody was even trying to hit me. It’s like they didn’t even care I was there at all. They were all going after the ranged assassins. Especially if you picked Kael’Thas, everyone is focusing you. I almost never play Kael’Thas in regular games, but when I do, I’ve no problem doing decently. But in ARAM, I can’t play him at all. Basically I walk in range, button mash everything, then run away at near death. Wait to be healed, then repeat. I didn’t die much, but it felt very hard to do damage. Meanwhile, all the other Kael’Thas are doing tons of damage, probably because they only play ARAM, so they’ve mastered his play style for the ARAM meta.

7

That is your answer, if only one per team probably gonna be hard to hit things, if 2 or 3 KT on team makes it exponentially easier/harder (for the opponent), played one game where thought we had reasonable comp well balanced around everything, opponents had THREE KAEL’THAS and Johanna, needless to say how that went lol

8

I don’t mean in the same game, I mean in general. In the past few games, I’ve played Kael’thas, Leoric, and Deckard in ARAM. I felt like I was way more survivable as Deckard and Leoric, nearly unkillable. I could go up to people and auto attack them as Deckard and nobody cares.
“It’s just some old man hitting me with a stick doing no damage lol, let me focus down the ranged assassin instead.”

9

Just prioritize safety above all else. Most damage comes from being healthy enough to step up when the opportunity arises. As you get more comfortable with what to watch out for you can start playing more aggressively when you know you can’t be punished/you can footsies. If you’re KT just DW and little Q on cd unless you’re anticipating them to cluster for the DEQW motherload, if you’re Valla just keep Hatred rolling and hit their tank or whoever is out of reach of everyone else, if you’re GM same thing, if you’re Junkrat then get used to how to escape easily with W and play similar to Valla/GM except weaving your Q with your AA. And ofc you can use W to isolate someone on their team or peel also but you know. This is basically how to be safe and effective and toppu the charts all the time

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10

Mostly QM and ARAM player.

For auto-attackers:

  • Always be stutter stepping, almost neurotically, semi-randomly but keep a constant eye on the various enemy positions and always be moving away from risk and towards punishes. Work that sweet spot just outside of attacking range and the enemy’s attack range. Try to take no free damage, only damage that you can at least trade if you can help it.
  • Punish everything that you can safely. Does that Imperius tend to go too deep? Punish for as long as you can. Since healing is a finite resource, every drop of damage helps. Basically, take all the free damage you can get even if it seems inconsequential.
  • Pick a stacking hero that scales damage in some way with the game, preferably infinitely stacking.

Mages:

  • Pretty much the same thing as AA assassins, but more random movement in your hero’s “sweet spot,” not as much stutter stepping since you’re unlikely to be in AA range if playing safely. Otherwise, get as much free effective damage as you can, take as little as possible. Scaling quests can be good as long as they aren’t Convection.

Generally, also look at the comp that is developing and think about what type of assassin would complement nicely if you have an option. Does your team have sustained/poke damage but not much ranged burst that can finish heroes? Visa versa? Is there a healer/tank/support, etc…? Assassins with some kind of sustain or mitigation are generally good.

11

I can get top damage/kills and least deaths on team as Junkrat in ARAM pretty easily. As Kael’thas, I can be up there if the enemy team is mostly melee, but I feel like I can’t do much if I’m out poked by Hammer, Hanzo, Li Ming, or Junkrat. This isn’t a problem in regular games, as you can always out macro and flank gank. As Valla, I can 1v1 anyone, but it is true that I’m bad at playing auto attackers in team fights in general. I’m way more comfortable dueling 1v1 or even 1v2 than in team fights in general. Whenever I’m not playing main tank or Li Ming, most of my kills are from dueling or from ambushing.

I guess team fighting as squishy heroes is just tough for me in general. Most of my wins are through out-macroing the other team, picking off isolated overextended heroes, or performing better as main tank than the other team’s main tank.

So for AA assassins, I’ve no problem stutter stepping when it’s 1v1 or even 1v2, since there’s plenty of space to move and you only have so many cool downs to worry about. But when it comes to chaotic team fights, I feel like as soon as I get into range at all, I’m immediately hit by CCs and ults and annihilated in under 2 seconds. How to get better at team fights as squishy heroes?

To me 1v2 is a more favorable matchup than 5v5 when playing ranged assassins other than heroes with long range poke. For example, Raynor’s 6.5 AA range makes him infinitely easier to play in team fights compared to all the 5.5 AA range heroes. In a team fight, it feels like Raynor has 3 times the health of Valla, and Junkrat, Li Ming, and Chromie might as well as be tankier than Stitches, but in actual numbers, it’s not true.

12

Well, every ranged hero has his bread and butter so I’m not going to go through the full roster and explain the nuances of all of them.

General rule of thumb, you want to stay back and poke so patience is key. Even if they have a healer, the healer can’t hearth for mana and will have to wait for fountain cd to replenish so poke damage could help your team win by attrition.

With KT, you want to let your tank lead in, get aggro, and just toss on a living bomb THEN flamestrike as to discourage anyone from moving in on you. If you do it before living bomb, flamestrike will scare them off before you can get in range to use it resulting in you having to go a bit deeper to apply it.

Use gravity lapse on any divers like genji and make sure that if there are divers, that you’re positioned in such a way that if someone did dive, they’d be in the thick of your team or in range of towers.

So you’ll just hit and run all game and when you see them clump, you’ll unload your combo and bounce back. over and over

step 2: watch them kill themselves with living bomb
step 3: profit.

13

Also if youre up against better poke than kt is pretty hard to get value from tbh. He’s actually kinda niche

14

Well. I am going to keep this general;

  1. You need to determine what type of kit your hero has. Are they a burst damage dealer? Are they sustained damage dealers? Does most of their damage come from abilities or auto attacks? If your hero is burst damage you’re probably going to want to use your cds to follow up on cc and if sustained damage your just going to hit what you can safely.

  2. Look for the enemy team’s threats and keep them in mind, try to keep track of the cds of those threats, for example ETC just used his slide, I can be more aggressive vs. him now. You generally want to keep your tank between yourself and the enemy team’s threats so he can peel if needed and be close enough to your healer that they can save you if you get caught.

  3. Stutter step, always be moving and always weave in AAs in between your abilities. Stand still is a death sentence and if you’re not weaving in AAs between your abilities you’re not playing your hero to their fullest potential.

15

Well, I see some pro tips here, i still consider my self a newbie , But i Read and watch a lot.

ARAM n QM is hell different.

ARAM helps u get stacks where u need to hit heroes, Kelthuzad wil get stakcs up real fast, thrall lightining stacks go up real fast.

To start with, dont go the normal build, you should almost ALWAYS adjust for ARAM from build u mostly go in QM.

And what you say so far, you been comfortable in duels and 1v2 , but not mostly in team fights.

I had this problem too, I watched a youtube video on something like “Team Fight Mechanics” it helped me a lottt

heres the few points I learned from that and made some my own rules to excel in team fights (most of them r simple, but you dont tend to giv them weight unless u hav them in mind) as an assasin (i play assasins only, and i LOVE to hav a kt or li ming or greymane in ARAM)

1 = KEEP DISTANCE
When KT or Li Ming , ur the target. keep distance. DONT have to hit a combo everytime, u can just flamestrike n mov bak without putting a bomb, or put a bomb n mov bak without putting a flamestrike (for starters)

2 = HAV UR ESCAPE READY
dont teleport IN with Li Ming, (unless you going for the kill to teleport bak). Keep KT’s E ready to stun to run back.

3 = B BEHIND THE TANK
Yes, everyone knows it, but wht i mean, u got to keep one eye on the target n one eye on YOUR TANK. you see him mov bak even an inch, you mov bak too,
If you stay behind tank, n stutter step along his movement. almost all skillshots coming for you can b soaked by the tank

4 = GET GLOBES FROM MINIONS
You cannot avoid that, its a HUGE difference

5= DONT AUTOATTACK (as a mage)
Your autoattacks wont damage much, but if theirs a valla or greymane there, they can drop you in few autoattacks if you overstep.

FOR AA RANGE HEROES (Valla, Greymane)
1 = Stutter step. keep dancing, frustrates the enemy when his shots miss u n he does a mistake

2 = Dive in ONLY for the kill and DONT overstep.

3 = GET GLOBES (the one from minions) You CANNOT avoid them

4 = Initiate AFTER the tank, there is limited healing in ARAM , hearthstones have been disabled. Dont b Superman :stuck_out_tongue:

Overall, if you hav decent players to play with… You can excel in team fights by playing more ARAM style matches.

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16

Thanks. Most helpful post so far!

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17

But yes,

autoattacks as a mage are BIG PLUS,

but you mov on to that when you are more confident,

and so are combos, i dont do flamestrike n run bak, or bomb n run bak while im KT, i do them both, 99% times, but i agree, i started with doing one n running bak, stayed alive, got confident, n now im good, :slight_smile:

go step by step , ,as simple as tht, having CONFIDENCE in your hero and urself is the bigger than the ultimate ability ® :wink:

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18

After reading all this, it reminded me of a rather hilarious ARAM a while back I had. Everyone was tracer. Took a good 5 minutes before any actual engagement happened. And even then, it was constant poke and run.

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19

Stutter step is the basis. You need to learn what range your hero has and always use the maximum.
If you can, always play range assassin. Training makes the master.

In ARAM matches I learned how to play many heroes, for example Zuljin, Raynor, Guldan, Falstad, Hanzo, Diablo.

20

True, ARAM teaches you several things that you can never learn in the other play set. Including

Stutter stepping
Track of Opponent’s Ability Cds
Wombo Combos
Initiation and Retreat timings
Coordination of Team Fights
And, to b calm and in control when u see 10 heroes within a screen :slight_smile:

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