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Pressure

Core rule

Pressure is anything that forces the enemy to spend movement, defensives, attention, space, healing, cooldowns, or morale.

Damage is only one kind of pressure.

Pressure types

Pressure type What it does
Damage pressure forces heals, defensives, retreats, or deaths
Positional pressure makes the enemy choose worse terrain or angle
Timing pressure forces the enemy to answer before cooldowns are ready
Disruption pressure interrupts, purges, silences, roots, slows, or breaks channels
Healing pressure forces enemy healers to overcommit or choose between fronts
Information pressure hides your real plan or overloads enemy scouts/caller
Objective pressure makes the enemy move because a castle, territory, mage, chest, or wall matters

Pressure before kills

Many fights are won before kills appear. A zerg that loses its front, burns defensives early, loses angle, or gets split from healers may look alive but already be losing.

Q/W pressure

Q/W pressure is the most common pressure floor. It turns successful engages into kills, punishes enemy tanks that overstay, and prevents enemy healers from resetting low targets for free.

Common failure pattern

Players use E, see no immediate wipe, and retreat.

Better pattern:

  1. E lands or forces enemy movement.
  2. DPS step into safe Q/W range.
  3. Tanks stop exits or counter paths.
  4. Supports protect the forward lane.
  5. Healers keep the pressure players alive.

Training prompt

In VOD review, find one enemy player who survived at low HP. Ask:

  • Who had Q/W or autos available?
  • Did tanks stop the escape path?
  • Did healers support the forward players?
  • Did players retreat because danger was real, or because red name tags looked scary?