| Blind hooking is where you predict a players actions and successfully hook them while they are not on your screen; when you're completely blind. This is an advanced technique, so don't expect to be able to pull it off right away. It requires a lot of DotA/HoN experience to be able to properly predict a players actions within the fog. The below screenshot gives an overview of the situation within my lane.
Zephyr and Magebane are going to push the lane back my way. I'm watching their actions and waiting for a chance to land a hook.
I notice zephyr position himself on the left side of the creep, which coincidentally puts him in the perfect hooking position. Unfortunately though, there aren't any more creeps, and the fog is dimming.
Zephyr hasn't been in the fog for very long. I have a good grasp of how fast he moves, so if I were to assume he ran straight the entire time, he would be at the red circle.
This part often makes my heart skip a beat. If you look at the bloodstain, you can tell that I've obviously hit "something". If Zephyr did exactly as I predicted, it's no doubt going to be him, and I'll soon be having myself a kill. But what if it wasn't? Zephyr could have just as easily thought "I should probably move, devourer is missing." If he did, that could be a creep for all I know!
When you see this situation, you can't help but smirk a little. I predicted exactly what zephyr would do, and caught him completely off guard. When targeting your hook, you need to also predict what could go wrong if you miss your desired target. In this specific situation, I could have been easily killed by the two of them if I had missed that hook. You have to decide if the risk is worth the reward. For those interested, I Devoured Zephyr and he died before magebane could even realize what just happened. 
Blind hooks aren't always ridiculously hard to pull off. In a situation where an enemy is running for his life, he is more likely to make mistakes, such as running in a completely predictable straight line.
Sand Wraith is running in fear of the Kraken. He just ulted in hopes to confuse my team and save his life. I'm well aware that he's still there though, and I am within hooking range. Generally speaking, people will run in a straight line towards the fountain when running up their base ramp. Sand wraith is about to do just that.
After watching his actions for the past couple of seconds, I try to predict where he is going to run. I've never seen him throw off any crazy juking movements, and just before he enters the fog he's running in a straight line; so I can only assume he will continue to do so.
It might take Kraken a second to realize that what I have in my hands is not an illusion, but I imagine he will be dead before that happens. Success! |
No comments:
Post a Comment