A Closer Look at Movement Penalties

I'm sure most of us are familiar with some of the basic Movement Penalties that exist in the game. In this post, I want to highlight some ways that players can use their knowledge of this mechanic to their advantage in different situations.

To start, let's quickly go over the different types of Movement Penalties and their amounts:

Strafing - 20%
Melee Basic Attack - 35%
Backpedaling - 40%
Ranged Basic Attack - 50%

It is also important to note that these slows are applied after Diminishing Returns, with only the highest penalty being active in a given moment.

So how can we use this knowledge to our advantage? Let's look at a basic example:

Let's say you are trying to land a freehand skill shot onto an enemy Hunter or Mage. When would be the best time to cast your attack? According to our chart, the Hunter/Mage will be under the heaviest Movement Penalty while they are casting a Basic Attack. If you can time your skill shot during the time that the enemy is Basic Attacking, you will have a greater chance of connecting your hit.

Another thing that I see many people do inefficiently is juke. Juking can help you avoid a lot of damage when done correctly, especially if you are a squishier role. To juke in the fastest way possible, you want to be running forward while not Basic Attacking. To give yet another example, let's say that you are against a Kukulkan who is casting his Whirlwind ability at you. After he winds up, you then see its circle ability targeter begin to form on the ground around you. To get out of the area as quickly as possible and avoid the damage, you'll want to (1) Stop Basic Attacking if you haven't already, and (2) Turn in the safest direction and run forward. Many people will make the mistake of trying to strafe or backpedal out of the area ( and some won't even stop Basic Attacking - yikes!), and almost always end up eating the damage as a result. Being aware of your Basic Attacking and movement direction can greatly enhance your ability to dodge enemy attacks and avoid damage.

Lastly, I'd like to give an example of how the understanding of "only the highest penalty can be active at one time" can improve your gameplay. For this example let's look at Medusa. Her passive, Sidewinder, enables her to suffer no Movement Penalty while strafing and only half the Movement Penalty while backpedaling. Many players operate under the assumption that this applies during her Basic Attacks. IT DOES NOT! In fact, if you try to Basic Attack while strafing, you suffer the same 50% Movement Penalty that every other Hunter/Mage in the game does. So, if you are a Medusa trying to get in close on an enemy ADC who is throwing Basic Attacks at you, it may be better for you to NOT Basic Attack as you close the gap while side juking their autos.

Hopefully this has shed some light on how the understanding of this game mechanic can benefit your gameplay. Of course, there are many other examples of how this mechanic can affect different interactions (and I would be happy to discuss any of these with the community), but I first wanted to revisit the basics. As you begin to utilize this mechanic more naturally, you will begin to find small advantages that you can seize hold of in certain moments, especially if your opponent is not as knowledgeable of this mechanic.

I hope this sparked some thoughts. Thanks for reading!

As usual, I think it's cool you're going a bit in depth on various mechanics.

In the case of MS, I think it'll also be good to just provide some quick references as well. The Word of Thoth is now quite outdated, but the core mechanics for MS should still be accurate.

MS diminishing returns, just to put it here, are as follows:

• MS between 0-457: increase is normal (1x).
• MS between 457-540.5: increase is 80% (0.8x effectiveness)
• MS after 540.5: increase is 50% (0.5x effectiveness)

Also good for people who don't know to understand how MS is calculated in the first place. Medusa has a base MS of 365. If you were to apply a 10% MS increase, the 10% calculates off of that, giving her a new MS value of 401.5. Gods that have higher base MS will see slightly higher increases from the same % MS increase. E.g. Chaac's base MS is 375.