The Basics of 1v1

The Basics of 1v1

Why should you play 1v1s?

Yea, I assume that FFAs or team games are far more interesting to play, but playing 1v1s teach you to dominate your opponent. This kind of games greatly improves your core skills, such as Movement and Aiming.

Principes in 1v1s

No news today, you must get your opponent to 0 hp. There’s, in my opinion, two ways to do that: Dealing the most dmg you can, or push him in the lava. Personally, I use the latter.

Many newcomers stay at the edge of the arena and run around, trying to dodge. This is the worst way to play Warlocks. Why? One good aimed fireball will get the newcomer in the lava, and one hit from the newcomer won’t get his opponent in the lava. The main goal is to keep the center. You won’t succeed if you play defensively, be aggressive and push !

Core skills: Movement and aiming

Mostly, newcomers will run around in the same direction. Thus, shooting a fireball a little bit more right/left that his current position should hit him. Average players got a ping-pong movement: running left/right/up/down in fast changes. Then, shooting in his current position should it him when he turns back. I know, it seems stupid, but it works. Advanced players combine these two. As for movement, remember to keep your dodging as random as possible.

Keep playing and watching replays, and it’ll come to you !

Choosing your abilities

The first spell you should buy in a 1v1 (and every other mode) is the R spell. This category contains Teleport, Thrust and Swap.

Teleport
Pros:
-Can't be blocked.
-Can teleport through pillars.
-Instant casting.
Cons:
-No effect upon arrival.

Thrust
Pros:
-Deal damage and knockback upon arrival.
Cons:
-Can be blocked.
-Can be shielded.
-Can't move through pillars.

Swap
Pros:
-Can swap your opponent upon arrival.
-Almost undodgeable Swap+Scourge combo.
Cons:
-Slow.
-Can be shielded.
-If the swapping projectile hit a projectile spell, it swap the user with the spell.
-Lightning interrupts completely Swap.

Knowing these, I think you should be able to make a good choice .
The second spell you should buy belongs to the D category : Lightning, Boomerang or Homing.

Lightning
Pros:
-Instant.
-Good damage and knockback.
-Easy to combo with other spells.
Cons:
-Often hard to aim for newbies.

Boomerang
Pros:
-Cannot be blocked.
-Can hit multiple times.
Cons:
-Hard to aim correctly.
-Multiple hits could be hard to do.

Homing
Pros:
-Tracks the enemy warlock.
-If you step on it, it explodes an does AoE damage.
Cons:
-Can be dodged easily.
-Hard to combo with other spells.

With these choices made, you should be able to pick the other spells by yourself !

Tips and Tricks

Prescourging: Hit scourge, then while it charges, cancel it by clicking on S or H if you need to. (Opponent out of range, tricking your enemy)
Telescourge and WW: When the enemy warlocks telescourge you, pop WW and it should push him out of range before the scourge hit you.
Buttshot: Click on cluster, aim it a little bit behind your warlock, and it will shoot it through instead of turning around. The surprise is good, but
not the aiming.

It was an attempt to write some kind of guide for newcomers, since my teaching abilities in-game are really bad . Please share your opinion about it, so I can make
it better !

For a real 1v1 put these settings:
-League B
-11
-to put observators do this: -teams, click on the name of the person, click on OBS.

What? No cons..?

About what spell/thing ?

Everything you listed.
You only gave pros.

I hate swap personally, it only goes in a straight line and it's useless if somebody stays on you, you actually swap with projectiles which is totally retarded. It gives the both the main weaknesses of teleport and thrust with only one REAL pro, it being good for switching positions which is basically already achieved by teleport by teleporting behind them.

I prefer teleport over thrust personally, easier to save yourself, because thrust go straight

Yeah... but thrust does damage.

Thrust>Teleport

I dare you to teleport anywhere near me when thrust cd is not being used. Also, thrust is better because you can't pre-scourge a thrust.

Shield + Teleport.

Both teleport and thrust are good.

The big advantage about teleport is that its really fast. So if you want to own a thruster with teleport, you have to be really fast.try playing with pros who uses tele(muffinz for exmaple)with thrust.As soon as ur back on the arena it dosnt take long and ur right back in it.

I prefer thrust in 1v1, cause it fits with my way of playing, while teleport dosnt support me as much.

I also do not recommend swap, because it's a fail spell in my opinion. If your winning and your swapping with your opponent by misaim, thus placing you at the edge, hope to survive xD

That's a stupid comment elven, swap is very good if you toggle it and that you use it wisely.
All "r" spells are good. It just depends of your game play.

Great thread

Thanks muffy <3

Immortal wrote:

Thanks muffy <3

are you sure that its for you?

Damn, got owned, again D:

The Beast wrote:

That's a stupid comment elven, swap is very good if you toggle it and that you use it wisely.
All "r" spells are good. It just depends of your game play.

I DISAGREE.
It doesn't matter how you play with swap, it sucks. Try finding a swap player that's better then any fast reacting (pro) Thrust or Teleport user, there isn't. It's not a coincidence, Swap is just a horrible spell in 1v1's, it's meant for switching places when your near the lava but that's totally useless, all R spells pretty much do the same thing once you think about it, just different positions. Swap is also often blocked by a projectile or a shield.


If you don't understand then allow me to explain in greater detail...


Swap swaps you with the enemy in a 1v1. They just Teleport behind you (surprise!) and you're back down, the chances are they also get a extra hit in due to them knowing where they are before you do.

Swap swaps you with the enemy in a 1v1. They just use Thrust on you (surprise!) and you're already pushed onto the other side of the map. Congratulations, you're near the lava again, just on the other side.

Swap relocate doesn't swap warlocks, only pillars.

I like your stupid reply, if you wouldnt be retard, you would know that you can toggle swap.

The Beast wrote:

I like your stupid reply, if you wouldnt be retard, you would know that you can toggle swap.

Meh. I haven't played Warlocks for that long and I'm not nearly on as much, that's my excuse.

You really don't mask you're faults and aggression that well, you need to work on that, *wink wink*.

Immortal wrote:

Swap relocate doesn't swap warlocks, only pillars.

Hiss.
Shut up, ._.

actually swap is good, i prefer a good thrust or even better teleport but swap can rocks too... ever seen Fisan plays with it ? omg swap+meteor magma and ur damn hurted and the prescourge is faster with swap than with teleport and thrust requires more skill and timing to. Swap+ boomerang is good too and if your opponent get shield just toggle swap ffs...

this is my humble opinion i know im not a pro. Bax...hush

Id like to know which is better between Fire Spray, and Fire cluster, their pros and cons, wether it is in a 1v1 or with more ppl. I always toggle it to cluster but saw many people really good with the untoggled on.

I'd say cluster because spray is much hard to aim correctly. Max hits are more common with cluster than firespray too.

swap can be as good as the other R spells, w/e fits with ur play, sameshit for spray
tbh, im swap and spray all the way bro and it does wonders

I prefer fire spray, usually only hit 50% of the time, but it's effective at neutralize spell combos(like fireball+lightning), while still dmging the enemy warlock. plus, most of the time i hit, i hit 80% of the spray.