What Is Stutter Stepping And How To Do it?

Today our Heroes of the Storm boost team will help you understand a very important, but tricky mechanic: we are talking about stutter stepping. As you know many of our guides focus on “macro”: map rotations, hero and battlegrounds guides, but to boost your win ratio in HotS having good mechanics is also a must. We didn't see a lot of discussions or guides about stutter stepping, but if you master it you will have great benefits; it’s a pretty underrated mechanics, but very very effective. So without further ado let’s get started!

What Is This Stutter Stepping You're Rambling About?

First, let’s understand the basics. When you right click on an enemy, your hero starts autoattacking him, and if your target walks out of range, you will follow him.

Note that your hero will keep attacking him as long as he is in range without moving, and of course this scenario is suboptimalbecause you will lose a lot of free attacks due to running to close the gap.

Balance is key here. With stutter stepping, we want to minimize your champion’s idle time! Back in my WoW days, the “ABC” of every caster was Always Be Casting: here in HotS, the best motto for every hero is “always be moving”

Basically with stutter stepping we take advantage of the time between auto attacks, and we use that time to chase our enemies or to kite them back, depending on the situation. Every hero has a different delay between autos: think of it like an “auto attacks cd”: we will name this delay “Auto Attack Time”.

In many MOBAS there are spells that reset the auto attack timers, and in HotS Arthas’ D is a perfect example: if he uses his skill right after the animation, he can immediately use another auto attack. Butcher’s Q has the same effect.

With stutter stepping, we use a similar concept: instead of a spell, you should move your character during the auto attack timer, and then use the next auto when according to your perception the cool down is over.

I know, it sounds hard, but practicing it in a real game is way easier than it seems here! Of course stutter stepping is more rewarding and also easier on ranged heroes, while doing it using a melee character is harder. The best way to do it is to start with your most played hero, because you will already intuitively know his attack timer.

So How Do I Learn This The Fastest?

The best way to stutter stepping is to enable smart cast, press A, fire the auto, immediately right click to move, press A again as soon as you feel that the next auto attack is ready, move, rinse and repeat.

Remember to watch closely your hero’s animation to cancel them properly. The best way to practice is to do it always, not only when you get a real benefit: pro players stutter step not only during chases, but also when last hitting minions or taking bosses, just to keep the rhythm. Try to move every time you attack a minion, for every wave, and in a few game you will be able to master this technique and boost your Heroes of the Storm win rate!

Feel free to check out our regular Heroes of the Storm Tier List.