The best players in the world are able to survive through enemy cooldowns and immediately pressure the enemy team. How do they do this? One of the biggest mistakes many players make is: not knowing how to reverse pressure against enemy cooldowns. Have you ever played against a Red Paladin and found yourself panicking the moment they popped wings? You might try to pop all of your defensives and kite away but it never feels like you can truly turn the game around.
In today’s guide, we are going to be doing a rundown on one of the biggest mistakes many players are making without knowing how and when reverse pressure. Also including a breakdown on how to reverse pressure against different compositions and elaborate on how the pro players are doing by swinging matches into their favor.
One of the biggest mistakes that players make is not realizing they can immediately reverse pressure immediately after enemy cooldowns!
You cannot let yourself be mentally crowd controlled by being afraid of pushing in. Sometimes you need to be willing to push in to fight with their cooldowns with your own offensives in order to take control of the game. One of the best ways to force mistakes and to open up win conditions is to be aggressive. You can use aggression not only as an offensive tool for cooldowns but also as a defensive tool to push the enemy team back. You already know how hard it is to play under pressure but you have to be willing to apply pressure to the enemy team to force their hand and to force them to make mistakes.
Here are some tips and tricks on how you can turn around pressure!
Now that you know how to counter attack with aggression, let’s take a look on how that actually works. We all know how frustrating it is to play against compositions like RMP where every moment seems like it’s spent in CC. Setup compositions like Rogue Mage and Jungle Cleave apply most of their pressure in short CC windows based on around diminishing returns. They perform their go then pull pack for a bit and do it all over again every 20 seconds.
Against these compositions, you are playing against DR timers. The pace of the game is dictated by these windows in which the enemy team can setup CC chains. Rogues rely on targets being off stun and Poly DR in order to set up kills. DRs last 18 seconds, which mean you should utilize this 18 second window against the stun or pulley DR to push in as it is the perfect time to establish pressure.
Teams without spammable control like melee cleaves rely less on CCs and DRs to set up kills and more on massive damage spikes with offensive cooldowns. Against melee teams with longer setup timers like melee cleaves, you need to use specific windows in order to force cooldowns from the enemy team.
The window of opportunity you have against melee cleaves is a bit more generous as they aren’t usually waiting on DRs for long CC chains. Your counterpressure window is opened up whenever the enemy team’s offensives are down. If you’re unable to force cooldowns gradually while they force cooldowns on you, you will most likely fall behind. By playing too defensive you are actually hurting yourself. You need to know when to push in and become aggressors.
There are two conditions that indicate good moments to apply counter pressure:
The first is when you are on DR to CC. This is especially important against compositions like Rogue Mage because their win conditions only happen when targets can be CC-ed. Once you are on DR to stuns or spammable CC like polymorph, you have perfect window to counter attack. Not only will you be able to force defensive cooldowns from the enemy but you can also delay their next counter attack giving you a defensive hand while developing a offensive pressure.
Another perfect time is when the enemy team is currently behind on offensive cooldowns. Your offensive cooldowns even act as pseudo-defensives either by increasing your healing, establishing control, or mitigating damage. In melee cleave mirrors, you cannot fall behind on offensive cooldowns, stay on the attack, even during enemy cooldowns.
One thing you will know about pro players is that how they seamlessly switch from defense to offense. Not only that they’re coordinating cooldowns, but they are also simultaneously planning counter attacks while under pressure.
A way for them to do this is by fighting through cooldowns. Reversing pressure is the next step and this is what truly makes a top level player.
HOW PRO PLAYERS SET UP KILLS UNDER PRESSURE: Damage and Control
DAMAGE: Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. Offensive cooldown trading is one of the most common tactics among high-rated teams. Trading offensives gives you immediate counter pressure. You both need to stay ahead offensively and defensively the entire game. In melee mirrors, fight through enemy pressure with your own pressure. This is important as this will allows your team to get the best value out of their cooldowns and keeps them ahead on their offensive pressure.
CONTROL: This is also the quickest way to turn around pressure. Crowd controlling a healer can also immediately reverse pressure. This means that you can force defensive cooldowns from the enemy team while also preserving your defensives if you are able to land control.
Gentle Reminder:
Not only that it is important to react defensively to enemy cooldowns, but you also need to reverse pressure with your own cooldowns. The best players in the world are able to reverse games under pressure, and you can too!
VIDEO CHAPTERS:
0:00 – Intro
0:32 – The Mistake Players Make
1:38 – How To Turn Around Pressure
5:58 – How To Set Up Kills Under Pressure