"Hell, It's About Time"

One of the abilities that being a very good HotS player requires is timing. Timing is essential if you want to keep high pressure across the map and it will give you a constant advantage over the enemy team. And sometimes, it can be the turning point for the game.

Map Timing: Mercenary Pushes

So why is timing so important? And what do we mean by timing? First of all, let's consider map timing. Every map has its own objective that will appear in a specific time of the game (the only exception is Tomb of the Spider Queen). This time for certain maps is fixed and this knowledge can lead you through the decision making of the game.

Generally, it's a good idea to conquer a mercenary camp just before a map objective spawns. The simple reason is that it will leave the enemy team two possibilities: If they want to contest the objective, then they will leave the mercenaries free to push through a lane; if they kill the mercenaries, then there's a chance to arrive too late to contest the objective.

You can see how this boss is left to push a lane with no defense caused by objective contest

Bad timing on conquering a mercenary camp can lead exactly to the opposite result. It can be a waste of time that will not only put the camp on cooldown while the mercenaries are wiped out in 20 seconds, but it could also make your team lose a teamfight around an objective or lose the experience you could have gained through soaking a lane.

You can find a good recap of all the maps timers here.

Map Timing: Bosses

The arguments we used in the previous paragraph can be easily extended to bosses as well. But there are other aspects to consider when it comes to the boss.

First of all, its behaviour is different. The boss will not only basic attack the heroes, but it will also go through a stun phase and a root/tornado phase (with the exception of the Headless Horseman).

A stun phase

Another consideration is that bosses take longer to be captured, so the perfect timing is harder to find. Most of the time your team requires more than three heroes to clear the boss and these factors increase the chance of getting the bad result we discussed above.

The time you start capturing the boss is important. In fact, the exact time you begin to attack the boss will determine its strength and health and consequentially its effectiveness. A very good video explaining more in details the boss' importance made by Wade 'Dreadnaught' Penfold is the following:

The map variety adds also another aspect when we talk about boss timing. In Tomb of the Spider Queen, it can be a good idea to take a boss camp when the Webweavers are falling in order to increase the push pressure on the top lane. On the other hand, in Cursed Hollow, taking a mercenary camp instead of pushing during a curse upon the other team is a bad idea in general.

As a rule of thumb, when you have the chance to choose between a fort and a mercenary camp, taking down the fort is the right choice.

Heroics Abilities: Heroes Cooldowns

A good habit is to keep track of the cooldowns of abilities, especially the heroic abilities of heroes who rely heavily on them. It can be a good hint to know when to start a team fight against the opposing team or when to be more aggressive. It's not an easy task but it can allow you to take a great advantage.

A couple of examples:

E.T.C.'s Mosh Pit: Its cooldown is 120 seconds. Once he activates his ability, if you are able to memorize the global timer, you will know for how long he won't be able to use it. During this timespan, assassins can play more aggressively and your positioning can be different;
Uther's Divine Shield: Its cooldown is 90 seconds. Let's suppose you're playing Illidan or Greymane with Uther on your team. Knowing that your teammate has Divine Shield up will let you take some more risks and maybe dive a bit deeper. (Of course, to do this you have to trust your teammate, but here is where communication is important);
Bolt of the Storm: Its cooldown is 70 seconds. This talent can be used offensively as well as defensively, but most of the time is used as escape. Remembering the timing of this talent will allow you to play properly against the opponent who may or may not have the talent available.

Other Kinds of Timing

There are a lot of other time-based considerations and every player can improve their awareness in order to play better. Just to mention a few:

Combo chain timing
Push timing (when to push a lane)

Try to be aware of these situations and to seize the perfect timing for them. Remember that the right time for an action is not always obvious and that's the reason why team has a shotcaller.

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