Hey everyone, Konduit here. I'm back with another series of articles, this time on Effective Teamfighting. Mastering teamfight mechanics and decision-making is one of the most difficult aspects of League of Legends - but it's also one of the most rewarding. You'll see massive improvements in your match results as your teamfighting prowess develops. Today's topic is on Patient Ability Usage - let's get right into it.

In teamfights, there's often a great deal going on (understatement of the year, eh?). Sometimes it's very difficult to point out or identify during the teamfight where things might be going wrong, what needs to be corrected mid-fight, and how to best take down the enemy team. What I want you to focus on today is a very specific subset of your champion's skills - the extremely high-impact ones that can swing teamfights.

I'm talking about abilities like Orianna's Shockwave, Sejuani's Glacial Prison, Amumu's Curse of the Sad Mummy, or Soraka's Equinox. Not all champions have super-important abilities like these (Udyr, for example), but some of the principles of what I'm about to discuss will certainly still apply. As you already know, these kinds of abilities (such as the ones listed above) can make or break a teamfight. They are extremely powerful skills that, when used optimally, are pretty terrifying to play against, and when carelessly employed can leave your team wide open to be swept.

Thus, it's important to really understand and learn how to use these skills effectively. The first step in this process is to resist falling into functional fixedness; don't get too focused on one particular usage of the ability. Certainly, Sejuani and Amumu's ultimates are excellent engage tools (probably the most renowned engage tools, even); however, you do not always need to start fights off with your ultimate. Sometimes, it's best to be patient, hold on to the ability, and get more value out of it down the line.

What do I mean by this? Let's take for example the scenario where, as Sejuani, you find the enemy team engaging on you. Their team has separated themselves effectively (playing around your ultimate) and are fighting well. Currently, if you were to use Glacial Prison you'd only be able to hit 1-2 people max; furthermore, even if you landed it on a priority target such as the enemy team's marksman, your team would likely be unable to bring follow up damage as they're too far away. You could use your ultimate on the enemy frontline - and if the situation is desperate enough, you might have to take this line of play - but during an even fight or one in which your team has the advantage, the correct play here is to hold on to your ultimate and look for a better opportunity to toss it out.

Holding onto a high-impact ability like Glacial Prison has a great deal of power in and of itself. Everyone and their mother is scared of Sejuani Ultimate, so they'll be playing safe in order to not be caught unawares in the massive stun. This gives your team a small advantage - the enemy cannot play as fearlessly as they usually do because of the threat of the high-impact ability. And in the situation in which they forget or start to give the possibility of you using it less respect (which in fact happens very often and is difficult to prevent), they will loosen up, begin to clump together a bit in the chaotic teamfight, and line up a better ultimate for you.

To reiterate, this same line of play is true for many, many champions (some of which have abilities like this that aren't ultimates). The key is all about maximizing the value you get out of high-impact skills. In reality, this goes for pretty much every skill, but for the teamfight-changing abilities it's of critical importance. As another example, let's take Soraka's Equinox ability, the silence field. Silencing an entire team is absolutely disgustingly disruptive - you want to get as close to this dream scenario as you can. Wait, and hold the ability until you see an opportunity where you can get significant value from it. Putting it on top of the enemy's AD carry will disrupt him/her for a short while - applying it in another fashion - placing it on top of your team to break up Mega-Gnar's stunlock before he can get it off will win you a teamfight single handedly.

This is also why it's important to really understand how you want to use your abilities in teamfights - and this isn't something you can decide in the heat of the moment usually. It's a strategy that you need to plan in advance: you should be thinking, "Alright, I'm ready for this Gnar when he tries to engage on my team, I'll save Equinox and place it right where he jumps". As Amumu, if your carries are not being threatened yet, hold onto your ultimate until the enemy tanks turn their attention to your backline and try to focus your carries down; a well timed Curse of the Sad Mummy is backbreaking here, whereas using it earlier when they weren't a real threat would've certainly helped, but would've been less effective.

It's rare that you'll get two Wind Wall's off in a teamfight as Yasuo; wait and look for an opportunity to use the ability when you really need it.

Naturally, there are a couple caveats to this principle; in dire situations, getting little value out of an ability is sometimes the right play (e.g. using Glacial Prison on a lone bruiser about to kill your carries). And likewise, when you're super far ahead, you can use your abilities more liberally because your team-wide advantages will compensate for any loss in value (e.g., using Sejuani ultimate to catch out and burst down the support, allowing your team to fight an easy 5v4). Finally, you don't want to be TOO value-seeking, and wait too long to use your skills in search of 'the perfect ultimate' (if you need to initiate, then just go for it). There's always a balance to be struck between the two directives, urgency and value. What I propose in this article, is to simply consider taking a couple extra seconds to evaluate the sitatuation and think about whether you can safely get more value with your ability later on.

In summary, don't be trigger happy with your abilities, nor feel pressured to use them in a certain way because that's how the ability is traditionally employed. Be calm, focused, and above all patient in teamfights. Look to maximize the value of your high-impact abilities, and you'll no doubt have a greater effect on the game and your team's success.

That's all for today, I hope you enjoyed the article. If you'd like to discuss anything League, have comments/feedback on this article, or just want to say hi, feel free to tweet me @k0nduit (with a zero instead of an 'o') and I'll get back to you.

Until next time,

konduit

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