The Art Of Juking - What Is Juking?

Hello lads. Today our HotS boost team will cover a very important topic about the micro aspects of the game: the movements, and especially the jukes. Juking is essential in the game as it will allow you to dodge skillshots, escape from tricky situations and in general survive longer.

There is also a mental effect: nothing is more satisfying than making a crazy escape from a tough situation, and on the other hand the enemies will be disappointed and tilted after wasting many cool downs and important abilities on a “free kill” that run away with 50 health points.

If you add to this that surviving means getting more experience and denying resources to your enemies, you will understand why juking is so important: many champions are considered strong according to our HotS tier list mainly because of their mobility, that allows them to perform crazy jukes.

However juking is often pretty hard. There are a lot of factors that can ruin your escape, and you will need to think about many circumstances before deciding where to right click - and only in a fraction of seconds.

Knowing Your Abilities

We just mentioned that many champions have dashes and gap closer in their kit, and often they influence their placement on our HotS tier list. However many players can’t understand that engaging blindly into the enemy team is not always a good idea.

For example, during our solo queue games I’ve seen many players using Anub’arak’s Burrow Charge or Muardin’s Dwarf Toss or the new hero Lunara’s Leaping Strike to get to an enemy just to get killed two seconds later.

Using your only gap closer as an engage means that you won’t have a dash to reposition yourself, and you will be on your own in the middle of the enemy team. Before engaging, consider your escape options.

Always Look At The Minimap

Many players lose focus when they are trying to juke or making an escape, and stop looking at the miniamp. We’ve seen it multiple times during our duo queue boosting sessions: a player is so focused on dodging a skillshot that he runs straightly in the face of another enemy.

HotS is a difficult game because it requires multi tasking: you can’t ignore the minimap or you will make crucial mistakes, nullifying your best juking efforts.

Keep In Mind Where The Bushes Are

Just like for the minimap, according to our Heroes of the Storm boost team bushes are also very important. First of all, an enemy may be waiting out of vision in a bush without showing up on the minimap, so take that into account.

You can also use bushes to your advantage: entering in a bush means that enemies won’t be able to use targeted abilities on you unless they enter as well. This tactic can buy you precious seconds if you are waiting for a cool down.

What Will The Enemy Do?

This tip is pretty straightforward. You want to outsmart your opponent, so if you are getting chased always be focused and ask yourself: “what is he gonna do? Use a spell, maybe his dash or his ultimate?” I know, it's hard, but try to think that you are the chaser if it helps, and you will be able to predict his next move. Let’s make an example.

I was being chased by a Muradin while playing Nazeebo, one of the strongest hero league heroes according to our Heroes of the Storm tier list. Since I knew that his Dwarf Toss was about to be available again, I decided to enter in a bush casting immediately my Zombie Wall right in front of me. The Muradin didn’t notice my position and assumed I was on the other side, so he just used his dash mindlessly, and in the end I was able to escape. Asking yourself what will the enemy do is a sure way to improve your win rate.

Know When To Fight!

The best defense is a good offense, am I right? Sometimes running is our first instinct, but it doesn’t mean that it’s always to best option. You should know when to man up, turn back on your chaser and try to fight him.

The safest scenario is when an ally is backing you up. If your chaser wasted enough time and you spammed enough pings, your team will be able to collapse on him catching the enemy out of position. However even if you are at disadvantage always turn to fight if you know that you will die for sure.

Maybe you will get lucky, or you will outplay mechanically your opponent. Maybe he will think that it’s a bait because your allies are collapsing, but I’ll be honest, most of the time you will die miserably. Anyway dealing as much damage as possible (without wasting long cool downs!) means that your enemy will have to back after killing you, releasing some pressure off your team. Or maybe he will waste some cooldowns to secure the kill. It’s not a game changing advantage, but it’s something. If you are gonna day, at the very least die with honor!

This ends our guide. Be sure to our site in the next few days for more article, guides and informations about the new hero, Lunara, and how she will place on our Heroes of the Storm tier list.