Hello summoners! New to the game? Have no fear!
Understanding LoL (League of Legends) is a series of posts that I will create in the next few weeks talking about small aspects of the game rather than mechanics. This includes champions or items to buy. Today, we’re talking about orb-walking.
Orbwalking, or Animation Cancelling, is another extremely important fundamental skill when playing LoL. It allows you to chase and kite effectively, as well as keep you more mobile in general.
This mechanic is unknown to most League of Legends players, and originally stems from DOTA (Defense of the Ancients), the predecessor of League of Legends.
Terminology:
ADC – Attack Damage Carry or Marksman.
Kiting – Orbwalking while avoiding damage (Ranged only.)
What is Orbwalking?
Basically, every hero has an attack animation when they auto-attack. This attack animation has three important parts to it: the start up, the actual damage, and the back swing.
The start up is the beginning part of the animation, and the actual damage is counted somewhere in between the start up and the back swing.
The back swing is the unnecessary and ending part of the animation, which we want to cut out, because the damage has already technically been done.
(For example: Master Yi swings his sword. The damage tick happens in the middle of the swing. We want to cut out the part where he continues to slice downwards, as it does nothing for us and simply causes him to stand still unnecessarily.)
Now, here comes the important part: You can cancel ANY animation by moving. We can apply this fact to our auto attacking by cancelling the animation right after the actual damage tick so that the full part of the animation does not play and waste our time. This is Orbwalking. Here is the cycle of orbwalking shown below:
Champion Attacks –> Start Up Of Animation –> Damage Tick –> Move Anywhere –> Repeat
Notice how if you just right click an enemy while they are moving, your champion will simply auto attack them and then stand there before proceeding to chase for the next auto attack. The reason for this is because in between attacks, your hero must wait before attacking again (based on their attack speed.) With nothing to do after attacking, your champion just stands there. Cancelling the back swing allows you to use that wait in between attacks to move around and dodge or get closer.
Why is it called Orbwalking?
Long story short, there was a hero in DOTA called Drow Ranger who had an ability called Frost Arrows that was “classified” as an orb effect in the game engine. Players often utilized this technique to kite enemies with her Frost Arrows and thus, it was eventually called Orbwalking. Kiting is specifically orbwalking while avoiding damage (something that only ranged champions can do), Orbwalking (or Animation Cancelling) is simply just cancelling your attack animation.
Why is it important?
This technique allows you to chase, easily re-position yourself, kite and get in more hits than when you could usually. Take a look at this video of the original DOTA, which shows a hero getting in more hits for the same distance travelled using Orbwalking:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rGiiOJlbJE
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Orbwalking is extremely important. Practicing your orbwalking while last-hitting is a great way to improve both techniques. It can be used to deal damage while running away, dodging skill shots, or even chasing. Always, always practice your orbwalking. There is no excuse to not orbwalk.
History:
Just a decent League player that’s been playing for three to four years. Gold in Season 2, Gold 1 in Season 3. Add Melonscoop if you wish.
Don’t know what League is? Play Here!
http://beta.na.leagueoflegends.com/
Here’s a guide to Orbwalking if you didn’t understand this one:
http://www.team-dignitas.net/articles/blogs/League-of-Legends/1816/League-of-Legends-Orb-Walking