Using your abilities
When to use your abilities and when to hold them: keep your escape for escaping, use the rest on a cue you picked, and save them to punish mistakes.
At every rank
Every ability needs a reason
After where you stand, your abilities are the biggest thing to get right, at almost every rank. The most common mistake isn't missing them; it's pressing them because they're ready. An ability spent on nothing is missing when the fight actually needs it.
Before you press one, know what it's for: getting out, getting in, stopping their play, or finishing a kill. Afterwards, ask what it got you. If the answer is nothing, that's the habit to fix.
Three kinds of ability
- Escapes (a roll, slide, dash, blink or teleport): keep at least one for getting out. Spent going forward, it's gone when you need it.
- Defensive ones (shields, a damage-reduction button, a cleanse, an immortality field): use them when real damage is coming, not before it and not long after.
- Plays (a stun, a sleep, a grenade, a hook, a knockback): use them on a target that's already committed to a move (mid-dive, mid-ult), so it can't dodge, and that your team can follow up on.
When you're out of them
With your main abilities on cooldown you're weaker for a few seconds, and good players watch for it. Play safer until they're back: step behind cover, let them come back, then go again.
At your rank
What matters changes as you climb. Pick your rank to open that section. We'll remember it next time.
Bronze and Silver2 tips
Keep your escape for escaping
When you take real damage, use your escape to get to cover straight away. Don't spend it to walk forward or chase. Dying with your escape still ready is the clearest sign you're holding it wrong, and the match review counts those deaths.
Stop spending them on nothing
- Don't use a heal or defensive ability at full health, or a damage ability on a target that can't die right now.
- Ask before each fight what your key ability is for, then save it for that.
- But do use them: an ability you never press is worth nothing either.
Gold and Platinum2 tips
Pick the cue before the fight
Use your key ability on a cue you picked before the fight, like the enemy committing (their tank jumping in, a shield going down), not the moment it's ready. Deciding beforehand stops you reacting late and panicking.
Defensives for damage, plays for commits
- Defensive abilities are for real damage. Pressing one with nothing shooting you leaves you killable for the next few seconds.
- Use your big plays (a sleep, a stun, a hook) on a target that's already committed, not as a gamble from far away.
- Even from a bad spot, good ability timing can still win the fight: wait for them to use their defensive ability (a barrier, a cleanse), then use your play.
Emerald and Diamond2 tips
Save them to punish a mistake
Save cooldowns to punish a mistake, then spend everything on that player. An enemy out of position, or one who has just used their own escape, is the moment; a full-health team standing together isn't.
Spend each one on its job
- Some abilities are made to open a fight: thrown early, they land before the enemy reacts. Save the rest for a mistake.
- Don't spend an ability that keeps you alive just to slow the enemy. Walk away instead and keep it.
- Hold your shield or barrier where the fight will be, and don't let it break for nothing.
By role
- TankTreat your combo as a card you play when someone has made a mistake, not into a full-health group.
- DamageSave your big ability for the enemy who just used their escape.
- SupportKeep your save (a cleanse, an immortality field) for someone who'll die without it, not for a teammate who's only taking a little damage.
Master to Champion1 tip
Plan every cooldown
- Plan each one around the enemy's ultimates: don't stun or knock back a target that's immune right now, and keep your answer for their big play.
- Be proactive: there's no perfect moment, and most abilities are back before the next fight anyway.
- Against divers, how many escapes you have left decides how much risk you can take. With none left, play as if a diver is about to land on you.
Find the habit in your own games
After every match, Hardstuck's match review points out deaths with your escape still ready, and links each one to this guide in the app, opened at your rank.