What is the best way to land skill shots at short range?

Question

I am by no means a bad skill shot based player, but it always seems much easier to land a successful skill shot when the target is further away from me. No matter the speed of the skill shot it just seems easier to predict where the champion will be and when you will connect at longer range.

At shorter ranges it is just a toss up predicting where they will go, when they try to dodge, or if they will even dodge at all. Its hard to tell in such a short amount of time with them running or advancing.

Is there a way for me to practice better skill shots at short range or should I always wait for them to distance themselves and mess up a dodge? I would like to go from 80% success rate to at least 97% in short range.

I use smart cast with range indicator so that my cast is pretty instantaneous.

Anyone know of any replay of a perfect skill shot game?

Answer 1

It really depends on the champion whose skill shot you're trying to use. For example, lee sin actually has a significantly easier time landing his q at close range, because he can slow them down first and almost be guaranteed a q.

Other than the obvious answer of "more experience", what I would suggest doing is not getting yourself in a situation where you're not in a comfortable position to skillshot, or wait to use that ability until you're sure it will hit. For example, as Morgana, sometimes I'll either ult first, or wait for someone else to land a snare before I dark binding in lane.

Another example that's probably more related to your question, is when I play Graves. Sometimes they'll get right up in my face, I buckshot, and it's the completely wrong direction. If I had just waited 1 more second before doing it, I would have landed it no problem, and it wouldn't have affected anything else. I just got too antsy to use it and didn't wait for them to be in a position where I knew it was going to hit.

So ya.. I would suggest waiting an extra second if they're right up in your face and you don't know which way they're going to dodge. At the end of the day, without a slow / another stun, and a competent opponent, it's up to chance at close range.

Answer 2

At extremely short range your best bet is to use smart casting.

The reason you don't use smart casting at medium-long range is that (unless your opponent is moving directly towards / away from you), there is no lead; the skill shot goes where they are, not where they're going.

On the other hand, when you're in melee or near-melee range, there isn't enough time / speed for the lack of a lead to matter. Smart-casting is especially useful when trying to land skill shots on adjacent opponents.

By default, this means shift-cast the ability when your cursor is above your target.

Answer 3

Honestly, I think the best thing you can do is click directly on the enemy and hope for the best. The game isn't really made for using Skill shots from close range, which explains why we have graphical issues such as those on Morgana's Dark Binding and Ashe's Enchanted Frost Arrow, which will apply the hit and continue flying past the target if they're too close.

Answer 4

What I try to do when making those unpredictable skill shots is first slow down. It doesn't matter if they get away because it would have happened anyway If you completely missed the skillshot. Try to make movements like you are getting in position to cast. Good players will wait half a second and then change their direction slightly, that is when I send my skill shot. It works the best for me but not all players will dodge and some will dodge even if you fake them out.

I don't think anyone is 100% accurate with those kinda of skillshots. If they say they are they are lying!

Answer 5

An easy way to land skill shots would be to just practice playing without it first. I wouldn't recommend using skill shots for people whom are new to the game/mobas.

Although if you are looking to really improve then I would suggest that you turn of skill shot range indicator as it actually delays the action for a small period of time. You should also try practicing the champ without skill shots at first so that you can get an easier feel as to how long the range of their abilities are.

Another easy way to use skill shots WITHOUT using smart cast would be to change some settings in your options menu. This can be done by following these simple steps:

1. open options menu by pressing esc or clicking the gear image to the left of your minimap;

2. open the "more options" tab in the options menu";

3. Tick the "Line Missile Display" box;

4. UnTick "Use Movement Prediction" box;

My bad got Movement prediction confused with something else. Movement prediction should only be used if you have high latencys. If not then it would be best that you turn it off as it will use a answer from the server.

A detailed explanation for movement prediction:

1. Client receives mouse-click input, translates that into a position on the map, then sends that data to the server.
2. Server receives the position, calculates a route for the player, then sends that back to the client.
3. Client receives the route and begins moving along it. At this point the client will "simulate" the movement of the character and send updates to the server.
4. Each time the server receives a client update it will do its own movement simulation and, if it disagrees with the client, send the client a correction.
5. Client receives a correction and updates its position to match the one on the server. This way, the server is always authoritative.

Where Movement Prediction comes into play is step #1 and 2. Instead of waiting for the server to generate the route to the new position, the client immediately generates its own route and starts moving along it. The new order of operations looks like this:

1. Client receives mouse-click input, translates that into a position on the map, then calculates a route to reach that position and simulates the first tick of moving toward it. It then sends the goal position and its new simulated location to the server.
2. Server receives the position, calculates a route for the player, then sends that back to the client. The server also looks at the client's simulated movement and, if the server disagrees, sends a correction.
3. The client receives the server's path and location. If the server's path disagrees, the client replaces its own path with the server's. It also corrects its position to match that of the server so that the server is always authoritative.

So, the reason Movement Prediction is helpful in high-latency environments is because it trades moment-to-moment accuracy for responsiveness. Instead of clicking and having to wait 300-400ms for your character to actually start moving, your character starts moving immediately even if it might be wrong. The reason you experience popping with Movement Prediction enabled is due to your client guessing wrong and having to correct its position to the one the server tells it it should have. The important thing to note about this is that Movement Prediction is entirely client side - it has no effect whatsoever on what the server thinks or does. Because of this, it cannot change the outcome of anything you or anyone else does in the game. It can, however, create visual errors like popping and misplaced particle effects in a sufficiently laggy environment"

Tips for hitting enemies close range:

1. Keep your mouse on the enemy champion and beware of your abilities range;
2. Try and predict where the enemy champion will move and shoot there;
3. Practice. Landing skill shots is a skill and i recommend practicing in custom matches before trying it in normal/ranked games;
4. Remember that most skillshots collide with enemy minions so try and work your way around them;
5. Good reaction times are also helpful when landing skillshots.