How to play against stealth

by [Phantom]

Stealth heroes are, simply put, a pain to deal with. They are sneaky, strong and very annoying. More than once have each of us been victims of their power. But soon, their reign of terror will be over; it is time to teach them a lesson.



In this guide, we will explain how to detect stealthed heroes, how to draft against them, and of course, how to play against them.



The Basics



Stealth is a mode where a hero becomes untargetable and difficult to see. The two most prominent examples of this are Nova and Zeratul, which share the Permanent Cloaking trait. This trait enables them to automatically enter stealth after 3 seconds of not receiving or dealing damage. Other heroes also have non-permanent stealth related abilities, such as Tyrande’s Heroic Shadowstalk. In this guide, however, we will mainly focus on the first two heroes and how to counter permanent stealth.



While Stealth makes heroes harder to see, it does not mean they are invisible as the heroes will distort the the light where they are standing, commonly called a ‘shimmer’. It is not hard to see if you are actively looking for it.That's where we get to our first tip: Against heroes with stealth, you’ll need to look for that shimmer constantly. When you see the shimmer, you can back up and wait for reinforcement or pull them out of stealth by using an AoE or Skillshot ability against them.





How to Play Against Stealth



When you ask for advice about cloaked heroes, most people will just tell you to look for their shimmer. That’s just the first step, let’s go a little deeper. To better understand how to play against them, you first need to understand how to play as them.



First, let’s talk about how they behave in the laning phase. Both Zeratul and Nova don’t have a lot of health and aren’t particularly great duelers. They will rarely initiate a direct engagement; most of the time, they will wait until you get out of position and attack you when you least expect it. Usually if you detect the shimmer and attack it they will retreat, because a big part of their strength is their surprise factor. If you know where they are, they typically won't be able to do much.



While they can deal a lot of damage pretty fast, they still need a couple of seconds to do so. As with most heroes, after they use their abilities a few auto attacks may still be needed to finish the enemy off. Because of this they will rarely attack a player if he is close to his gates, or on his side of the map. Instead, they will wait for the enemy to either overextend, or for one of their teammates (usually one with a stun or root) to catch him when he gets out of position and then finish him off. If you’re playing against a stealth hero, after you destroy a minion wave check your minimap and surroundings. If you don’t see Nova and Zeratul in the minimap, back up. Even if you could push down a tower, don’t do it. Wait for the next minion wave to come or for those sneaky assassins to reappear on the map.



Stealth heroes also prefer to gank enemy heroes that are alone in a lane because this will deny the enemy team experience, whilst also being an easier kill. If the enemy Nova attacks a squishy hero like Kael’thas when he isn’t alone in a lane, his teammate could protect him, heal him or even burst Nova down. Furthermore, two players are more likely to see the shimmer or notice Nova is missing from the map than one. When given the option of attacking a low health pool hero that is alone or another low health hero that is accompanied, it’s obvious who she’ll try to kill first. If you are alone don’t stand far from the gate. If you are hero without many hit points and are worried about a stealthed hero sneaking up, you should try to ask someone to rotate to your lane.





Map awareness is crucial. Let's look at this Tyrael for example. He is a Warrior and has a good escape ability, but he overextended with no mana. Even though he was almost full health, he couldn’t do anything to save himself because he was far away from his gates. His mistake was thinking it was safe to pressure a lane without paying attention to his mana and realizing Zeratul was missing on the minimap.



When cloaked heroes see you are playing carefully and safe, they may start to poke to lower your health for a future gank. When you are below half health it is dangerous to be in the lane, even if you don't overextend. If you receive that kind of damage, don’t be afraid to Hearthstone away. It's fine, just make sure you call a teammate to cover the lane so you don’t lose any experience.



Some maps force you to rotate to a certain place like a temple or a tribute spawn. A good ganker knows this, so he will wait in the jungle in the path where the enemy hero will come and attempt to kill him. For this reason try to not move alone to the map objective, especially if you are a low health pool hero. In case you need to travel alone, check the minimap to see if the stealth heroes are visible. If you can't see them, moving through the map behind your outer structures is a safe way to reach your destination. It may take you a couple seconds longer to arrive, but if you get killed on your way to an objective, you’ll never get there.



In the mid and lategame, the best counter to these kind of heroes is staying close to your teammates. You should rarely be alone against any kind of team composition at this stage of the game, but against stealth heroes this is particularly true. Moving close to them will prevent you from being picked off by stealthed enemies as attacking you will expose them and make them vulnerable.



While you should always look for the shimmer, sometimes you will miss it. You might think you are safe, but if you don’t see them on the minimap, you aren’t. The best piece of advice we can give you in these cases is that whenever an enemy Stealth hero is missing, always assume he’s right beside you, waiting for the moment you overextend. Don’t fall into their trap. If you follow this simple rule you will rarely die against these kind of heroes.



If you start thinking about how they behave you can then act accordingly to reduce the risk of getting killed. Reducing risks is exactly the way to counter stealthed heroes. If you push a lane when you don’t know where the enemy is, that’s an unnecessary risk, and you know what people call unnecessary risks? Mistakes. Stealth heroes are the best when it comes to punishing positional mistakes, but this also applies to nearly any hero, stealthed or otherwise. If you push without realizing that an enemy hero is missing, you are putting yourself in unnecessary danger as they may be preparing a gank. The difference is that it is much easier for stealth heroes to kill you since they can get to a better position. Play safe, play smart, and you’ll have a better time against them.



That covers the general gameplay. Now we’re going to quickly cover the specifics of the two stealthed heroes we’ve discussed earlier in the guide, Zeratul and Nova, to give you an idea of how to play against each of them.



Nova and Zeratul are both Stealth heroes but that’s roughly where the similarities end. Nova is a long range Assassin with no escape, and her main source of damage comes from her Q ability Snipe. Permanent Cloaking and her holo-decoys are her only survivability abilities until level 20 when she gets access to Bolt of the Storm. Her Snipe ability can be dodged and has a 10 second cooldown. Additionally, if you take the talent Spell Shield some of the damage from Snipe can be mitigated, lessening Nova’s stealth kill potential.Her lack of sustained damage alongside her low health pool means she is also a terrible dueler. If you do see an opportunity to catch a stealth champ by surprise with little risk, take it. Even low health pool champions such as Jaina and Kael'Thas can win a duel against even the strongest Nova players‏ if they get the first spell off.



Zeratul is a bit more tricky. He is a melee Assassin, which means he needs to get very close to you in order to deal most of his damage, but he has very high mobility in comparison to other heroes. While Nova is vulnerable if you manage to spot her, Zeratul can simply blink away. This means a Zeratul player will behave slightly different.



Since he has slightly less burst than Nova, when ganking he will often require the help from his teammates to secure a kill. If you notice any strange behaviour from his teammates in the lane chances are Zeratul is around. If your opponent decides to engage with you in lane for no reason, let you push so you overextend or tries to lure you into a kill, check the minimap. If you don’t see Zeratul fall back and wait until you know it’s safe. A roaming squad of Zeratul and another hero, usually with Crowd Control abilities, is very common too so pay attention to missing heroes across the board. The best way of dealing with him on a team fight is to use CC on him when he approaches a teammate to not let him blink away, after that he will die immediately if you focus him due to his low health pool.



