by JR Cook - 8 years ago     show comments

Tell me if this story sounds familiar.

You are in an epic battle on Dragon Shire. Both teams are evenly matched, and neither team is able to secure a Dragon Knight. Finally, after what seems like an eternity, your team manages to out rotate the enemy and grab the Dragon Knight. Your teammate immediately YOLO charges the DK right into the Towers. Before you can type, “Wait for us”, the Dragon Knight is defeated and your team has almost nothing to show for it.

This is an extreme example, but it represents a mistake that players regularly make on Garden of Terror and Dragon Shire. Players are so eager to make something happen once they take control of the Objective that they rush headlong into danger and end up squandering what their team worked so hard to achieve. It doesn’t have to be this way. When you control the Garden Terror or Dragon Knight you have plenty of time. What you don’t have is plenty of health.

Take Your Time

When you take control of the Terror or DK your first action shouldn’t be to immediately go attack the nearest structure. Instead, take a moment to make a plan.  You want to consider things like which lane is the most vulnerable, are there any lanes where the Structures are out of ammo, where are the enemy Heroes, and where are your teammates? The Terror lasts for 1:31 and the DK lasts for 1:10, which is an eternity in Heroes. You are better off using a few of those seconds to make a plan than you are to rush into action prematurely and not take full advantage of the time available to you.

Bring Your Friends

While the Terror and DK have a large amount of health, they go down quickly when the enemy team or Structures are able to focus on them. The best way to keep this from happening is to avoid going solo. One of the advantages to taking your time before acting is that it also gives your teammates time to come support you. Clearing enemy minions while you wait for the team means that many more friends that you can bring along when it is time to attack. Having other Heroes and minions around while you are controlling the DK or Terror will make it even more effective. It will be more difficult for the enemy to apply damage to the creature, which means longer that it will be able to stay alive and wreak havoc. Positioning when controlling the DK or Terror is also key. You want to avoid taking any unnecessary damage from Structures or AOE abilities.

Bob and Weave

Sometimes when you control the DK or the Terror you are able to hunker down in one location and really go into siege mode. Maybe it is because several members of the enemy team are dead, or they are simply not responding quickly enough, but there are times when you don’t face much resistance. Other times, the enemy team has the advantage and it seems like you are unable to attack without taking massive damage. During those times don’t be afraid to simply fall back and wait. Again, you have plenty of time. You can always go YOLO when your timer is winding down, but initially, you can afford to wait a bit if your teammates need to hearth back, or you need to wait for people to respawn. There is a skill to being able to stall and minimize the damage you take while waiting for the right opportunity to attack to arise. This might mean kiting the enemy around, it might mean trying to get a pick on an exposed enemy, or it might just be staying safe near your own Towers. A living DK or Terror is a constant threat, which limits the options of the opponent. Even if the opportunity to attack never arises, there is value in the perceived threat that you pose. Getting the creature killed removes that threat. The key is to be patient and wait for the best opportunity rather than simply charge ahead alone.

Plan Your Escape

No matter how well you control the Terror or Dragon Knight, you are eventually going to run out of either health or time. It is important to keep track of this and plan accordingly. It is such a let down to see a great push spoiled because the person controlling the creature overextends and can’t get out alive. Often this snowballs into multiple deaths because their teammates try to save them and end up dying as well. Your exit plan is going to vary based on the Hero that you are playing. If you are playing a Hero like Tassadar or Zeratul that has strong escape you might be able to keep up the aggression right up until the creature expires. If you are playing a Hero such as Artanis or Jaina that doesn’t have good escape then you need to take that into consideration and possibly fall back sooner. Either way, you should have a plan for what you are going to do once the DK or Terror expires before that actually happens. As we have discussed before, you don’t have to do something just for the sake of doing something. If the right choice is to safely ride out the last few seconds of the DK or Terror back by your towers then so be it. If you feel like you have done all you can with the creature you can even exit it early by hitting the R key.

The Garden Terror and Dragon Knight are powerful creatures and when you get the opportunity to control them it can be tempting to immediately start asserting that power. However, taking advantage of the ample time that you have to control these creatures is going to lead to more success. The longer you can keep these creatures alive, the more impact they are likely to have. Stay patient and reap the rewards.

GLHF!