Infinite Crisis has shut down.
With its departure, Dawnbase will be going into permanent read-only mode and will remain as both an archive of information about Infinite Crisis, and a reminder of the times we all had with the game.
Hats off to you all. It was a pleasure, ladies and gentlemen.
Sacrilege
@SacrilegeGG
Gotham Academy: The Beginner's Guide to Infinite Crisis
A General guide by chronolinqLast updated: Apr 13th, 2015
Link to guide: www.dawnbase.com/guides/1958-General-Gotham-Academy-The-Beginner-39-s-Guide-to-Infin
2,777 0
10
Introduction
I am chronolinq (CH4_chronolinq in-game) and this is my guide for new players to Infinite Crisis (IC). This guide is intended for new players to IC and new players to MOBAs in general. The goal is to introduce new players to the game mechanics and system of IC as well as familiarize them with the different maps. For the rest, from players that have played through the tutorial all the way to veterans, this guide will serve as a reference for specific details.
To progress towards being a better player, the first step is understand what you should be doing. As long as you have the knowledge of how to become a better player, you can continuously to practice it until you realize it. The beginning of learning to become a good player is to understand:
The game environment
Champions that you play and play against
General map strategies
What items to buy and when
This guide is meant to be general, so if you master the topics listed here, please look toward higher lever guides and map/champion specific guides to help evolve your gameplay.
In general: IC is a PvP (player vs player) game where players play in teams of 5 that must work together to destroy their opponent's Power Core. How is this accomplished? Generally teams work together to create advantage by gaining more experience and credits than their opponents to be higher in champion level and get access to more expensive items as well as completing in-game objectives for various beneficial effects.
Champions
As this game is based on DC Comics, the champions in this game are possibly the coolest part of it. Many classic and recognizable characters exist as champions, but in addition to ones that we are familiar with, there are also different versions of those characters that hail from different universes. With a wide array of champions to choose from, there is bound to be one that you identify with. Choosing a champion is an important first step as you are more likely to keep playing the game if you are playing a champion that you enjoy.
One of the first things that you should ask yourself is, what kind of role do you like best? Do you like to be in the middle of the action, dealing damage to all enemies? Do you like being unkillable? Do you like generating incredible amounts of burst damage? All the champions fall into a couple of different archetypes. From there, you can rank your skills and buy certain items to change your role slightly to fit different needs of your team. The 3 basic ways that champions are categorized are: Basic Attack type, Skill Damage type, and Role. Let's go over these:
Basic Attack Types
Melee: Your basic attacks require your champion to be standing fairly close to the opponent. If you hover over the basic attack icon, you can see the actual range of the attack. The ranges vary based on Champion with
Atomic Wonder Woman and 
Atomic Green Lantern having some of the longest reaches with their weapons.
Ranged: Your basic attacks are ranged. Once you have fired an attack from your champion, the projectile will follow the opponent and is guaranteed to hit unless the target teleports away. I believe the range of all the ranged champions are roughly the same, but there are no artifacts, modifications, or amplifiers that increase your Basic Attack range. The only exception to this is
Atomic Joker, who gains Basic Attack range from leveling his Jack in the Box skill.
Skill Damage Types
This refers to the type of damage that your skills deal. It's important to note that regardless of what type the Champion is, Basic Attacks will still always be attack damage.
Attack Damage: These Champions benefit from increasing their Attack Damage. This increases the damage of their skills from the bonus Attack Damage as well as increasing their Basic Attack Damage. This gives the champion higher DPS (damage per second) than most Power Damage Champions. By increasing the damage of basic attacks, It increases the threat level of your champion.
Power Damage: These Champions benefit the most from increasing their Power Damage. This increases the damage their skills, but does not increase their Basic Attack Damage. However, against turrets, you receive a bonus to your Basic Attack that is 40% of your Power Damage. This way, when trying to destroy turrets, your lack of Attack damage does not make your Champion entirely ineffective.
Hybrid Damage: These Champions benefit from both Attack Damage and Power Damage in theory. Unfortunately, there are currently very few champions that are Hybrid and no good items that support the ability to consistently build both effectively. These Champions are generally better off building one type of Damage and it usually tends to be Attack Damage. In addition to the champions that are listed as Hybrid (
Gaslight Batman and 
Mecha Wonder Woman), there are other champions that have skills that scale on both Attack and Power Damage such as 
Superman that can be a part of this category.
Champion Roles
Assassin: This type of Champion is generally Attack Damage and Melee whose goal is to use their kit to pick off weak targets or deal burst amounts of damage to a target and get out before taking too much damage. Assassins tend to build large amounts of Attack Damage to boost their skills and Basic Attacks, but do not have the Defense/HP to sustain their damage for much longer after the initial engage. For this reason, it is best to target Champions that are weak and attempting to leave a fight. It's important to recognize when to give up the chase because if the opponent kites you for too long (kiting refers to leading a Champion on a chase intentionally), you will eventually run into the opponent's other teammates and they will save their ally and potentially kill you. Assassins generally have very good kits for engaging enemies and some even have methods of getting out quickly. Assassins excel in the early and mid game when they are able to pick off targets in quick bursts, but if the enemy builds enough defense to survive the initial engage, they can seriously threaten you while your skills are on cooldown.
Assassins generally want as much Attack Damage as possible to increase the burst of their kits and Attack Penetration if the opponent is building armor. Assassins are able to deal incredible burst damage through their powerful skills so itemizing Cooldown Reduction is important to be able to use skills as much as possible. Building Attack Speed later in the game will increase your DPS and help you secure kills when the burst from your kit is not enough to kill an enemy.
Blaster: Blasters are like the Power Damage version of Assassins. They are generally Power Damage and Ranged. The goal of a blaster is stay in the back line and safely unload their skills on a single target in an effort to kill or remove the enemy from combat. When it comes to late game, you should have enough cooldown to keep rotating skills. It's important to recognize when you're in danger of being targeted as a Blaster as they tend to have slow move speeds and few effective escape tools. Understanding how much burst damage you can output as a Blaster is key to winning duels against single Champions and whether you can safely engage a Champion without backup. Late in the game, Blasters can shine with how much damage they can deal especially if the enemy has not built Power Armor.
Blasters want to build as much Power Damage as possible and depending on their needs, some Will Regeneration to sustain them through combat so that they are not useless after a full skill rotation. If you find yourself having Will problems, you can build
Doctor Destiny's Dreamstone (2) for the Will Balance keyword or 
Abin Sur's Lantern (3) to effectively build Will, Power Damage, and Cooldown Reduction (Level 3 is probably the most you want to build it until late game). After/while building Power Damage, Cooldown Reduction will allow Blasters to rotate skills more often. By the end of the game, the Cooldown Reduction built through items in conjunction with the lowered cooldowns of leveled skilled allows blasters to continue casting skills to stay relevant in a long battle.
Marksman: Marksman are generally Attack Damage and Ranged. They are also known as Attack Damage Carries (ADC). What this term refers to is the ability of the Marksman to carry the game late if they have the opportunity to gain a lot of credits. Marksmen, like Blasters like to stay in the back lines of fights, but unlike Blasters, they focus on high sustained damage through constant Basic Attacks. Marksmen rely heavily on items to increase their effectiveness in combat and that's why they are less of a threat early in the game. A Marksmen left unchecked has the ability to run through an entire team. While they do not have a lot of HP, most Marksmen have fairly good escapes and can even duel champions 1v1 because of how much damage they can deal and how quickly. In team fights, a Marksman wants to hit the highest threat in range, without putting themselves in danger. Sometimes this means hitting targets like tanks, but being mindful of positioning is key to survival. Always be conscious of who the opponent's damage threats are and attempt to focus them, but default to hitting the easiest to kill target in front of you.
Marksmen want to build Attack Damage early on, then Attack Speed + Critical Chance. Get Armor Penetration if you need to cut through your opponent's Armor. Attack Lifesteal is quite abysmal in this game compared to other mobas and the best choice is usually
Soultaker Katana (4). 
Cheetah's Claw (4) is a popular item, but I've personally not found it to be any good unless you already have advantage. Building Attack Speed before damage also generally leads to poor results. Remember that if your hits are not dealing much damage, attacking faster will not solve that; especially early.
Bruiser: Bruisers are generally Attack Damage and Melee and their main goal is to be on the front lines as a damage threat to draw focus from your back line. Depending on the team composition and what your team needs, you often switch between tanking and being a melee damage dealer. Most Bruisers have some CC (Crowd Control), which allows them to disable enemies and force the opponent to refocus their targets. You should be strong enough to trade damage with opponents and tanky enough to survive hits. For this reason, Bruisers tend to be good dueling champions.
Bruisers benefit from Bonus Health in addition to Attack Damage. If you build health, there are skills for most bruisers that scale with it and will tend to be skills that improve your ability to duel or tank. It's important to build a balance between health and defense as well as enough damage to continue to be a threat. Take note of your options to CC; Knowing when and how to use these skills will be paramount to your success especially in team fights.
Enforcer: Enforcers are generally Power Damage and Melee and their main goal is to jump into combat taking focus and damage from the enemy as well as proving CC for your teammates. Enforcers tend to have strong CC skills which will outright disable enemy champions or a brief time, or force them to re-position themselves in an arrangement that is beneficial to your team. As the tank, you constantly need to be aware of who is targeting who and you generally want the opponent to be targeting you. To be able to survive a fight, you need to be tanky enough to soak up all the damage the opponent is throwing at you, but towards the end of a game, you most likely won't be able to dish that damage out. For this reason it is important to have a damage threat with you if you aren't dueling 1v1. If the damage threat can stay alive and contribute damage, you should focus on keeping the opponent away from them so that they can secure the kill and not let you die. An important note here though, while you are the tank, if you don't have to take damage, don't needless wade through enemy skill shots. Be happy to take a skill shot aimed at your back line, but more damage you can avoid, the longer you can stay in the fight and help your team.
Enforcers want to build Armor to counter your opponent's builds/champions/threats as well as HP to increase survivability (and in most cases some defensive skills on the enforcer). Attack Armor is generally what people build, but if you find that you are consistently dying to a blaster, a blaster is what is in your lane, etc, make sure to build Power Armor to combat that. Also taking not of the keywords are many of the armor options to see what is best to counter build.
Metallo's Heart (3) for Attack Speed, 
Entropy Aegis (3) against combo champs or 1 particular skill is killing you, 
Booster Gold's Power Suit (3) if you are tower diving a lot, etc.
Controller: Controllers are generally Power Damage and Ranged. A Controllers job during the match is to increase the survivability of all teammates and help secure kills. A successful peel (Act of helping a teammate survive by averting focus or disabling an enemy) can be the difference in winning and losing an encounter. There are many different ways that Controllers can help from healing, shielding, slowing/disabling opponents, or just using their body to draw fire from low health allies. While controllers excel at helping teammates, it doesn't always mean that the Controller themselves can easily escape bad battles. While playing as a controller, it is important to help teammates live, but also to stay out of the focus of your opponents. The longer you stay alive, the longer you can keep your team alive.
Controllers want to build Will and Cooldown Reduction. This allows them to use their skills frequently and many of the defensive skills in the game scale with Will. Most of the time, you will also tend to build some form of Armor to help you survive through long battles, as being a Damage threat is generally not the goal of a Controller. That being said, Controllers currently have the ability to resemble a Blaster in the mid game with high Cooldown reduction and skill rotations. Their damage output quickly falls off since most Controllers are itemized for support.
After you have chosen your champion, understanding how to use them is key. If you know how to use your champion to the fullest, it will enable you to be effective in any situation whether it is dueling, team fighting, or escaping.
Movement
Movement is more than just getting your Champion from point A to B. Being able to move effectively reduces your chances of being hit by attacks or letting you hit with your attacks. Always try and be constantly moving. If you are standing still, an enemy will have no problem hitting you with a skill. When enemies are nearby and looking to engage, try to move in an unpredictable pattern. If you manage to dodge a skill, that increases your chances to winning the encounter and if you are healthy enough to engage, that is usually the time to do so. A missed skills means that there will several seconds at least before the enemy can use the skill again and you will have not taken damage from it.
When using your Basic Attacks, always be moving during the cooldown. After your Basic Attack animation has landed the hit, you can cancel your recovery animation with movement. You won't be able to attack again until the cooldown is over, but during that time you can re-position yourself against the enemy to favor yourself. When chasing someone, if you attack, you stop moving. This means that unless your move speed is faster than your opponents, you will eventually fall out of range. You want to move in the same direction as the enemy after attack if you think they're going to run and you can kill. This is also important if you're fighting near a health relic/drop and need to get to it, but want to continue attacking as much as possible. Lastly, moving around your opponent while attacking can make it harder for your opponent to hit you with skill shots greatly increasing your survivability.
Another important skill to practice is kiting. This is the ability to get an opponent chase you intentionally. This could be done for a number of reasons. One of them is to remove an enemy from a team fight. If you can get enemies to focus you and draw them away from combat, it makes it much easier for your team to finish the fight. Another reason you may want to kite is to draw an enemy into your allies, thus turning an encounter in your favor. Smart players will try not to take the bait, but many players will chase if they think they have the advantage. Effective kiting revolves around being a desirable target and making the opponent believe they can kill you. Champions that are effective at kiting are ones that can deal damage while on the move and continue to be ahead of the enemy. This way, once you decide to stop and fight, they will have taken enough damage where you can hopefully win the engagement. Melee kiting is much more difficult than ranged kiting, but it can be done.
One last important aspect of movement is skill usage. Some skills allow you to dash in a direction, moving you out of harm's way. These skills can also move you closer to a target to be in range to secure a kill. Always use caution when dashing towards an enemy as it means that you can't easily get out if things start to go south. Some of these "dash" type skills are also jumps. What this means is that certain low/thin walls can be jumped over. If you manage to do this while running away from someone, chances are you will live to fight another day. Only specific champions have the skill required to do this, so it is best to test this out before using it in a real match. Some skills instead of dashing, will move/blink you to a target instead. For these skills, a lot of them are used to close the gap against an enemy and secure a kill/start an engagement. It's important to note that while these kinds of skills appear to be offensive only, remember that enemy drones and neutral creeps count as legal targets for the most part and can be used to make an escape.
Moving Through Walls
The following is a list of Champions that have skills that allow you to move through walls. Some are much better than others (skill shots that require no visible target), but others can be used creatively to make plays. As of this writing, no Marksman can move through walls with skills.
Aquaman: If you hit with his Trident of the King, you can follow-up with Might of Atlantis to leap toward the target without regards toward terrain
Batman: Martial Arts. Needs a visible enemy target
Arcane Green Lantern: Construct Champion. Press Q again when the construct is over the wall
Flash: Hyper Vibration allows him to use his Flash Attack to dash through
Hawkgirl: Using Soar will allow you to mark a target with Mace Throw. If you manage to mark a target, you can press Q again to jump to the target
Joker: Vanish
Krypto: Fetch!. Throw the bone over a wall, and press Q again to dash toward the bone's location
Robin: Vault Kick
Shazam: Shazam!
Sinestro: Cull the Weak
Superman: Speeding Bullet. Requires a visible enemy champion. You can use Heat Vision to push enemy targets through some walls, and press E again to dash over the wall. By the same token, if you Heat Vision and the target moves behind a wall, you can press E again to dash through the wall to hit them.
Swamp Thing: Husk if there is a husk in place. Not really a quick escape though. Attacking him doesn't prevent his teleport unless there's a stun/knock up/down
Wonder Woman: Lasso Grab if it hits an enemy target. Protection, requires allied target (including cameras)
Atomic Wonder Woman: Vault
Anyone with the
Speed Force Battery artifact
The following are champs that have targeted "jump/blink" skills that can go through walls, but because of their limited range, they might not be that useful in actually jumping over a wall. The thinnest wall that I can think of is
Mecha Superman's wall. What's important about these skills is that if Mecha Superman raises the wall in between you and your target AFTER you target and use the skill, your skill will track them and you will move through the wall.
Blue Beetle: Lethal Measures while in Infiltrator Mode. Needs a visible enemy target
Doomsday: Charge. Needs a visible enemy champion
Nightmare Batman: Feral Embrace. Needs a visible enemy champion
Gaslight Catwoman: Predator's Grace. Needs a visible enemy target
Nightmare Robin: Unnatural Reflexes. Needs a visible target. Feed the Beast, needs a visible enemy Champion
Supergirl: Comet. Needs a visible enemy champion
Not the same, but related: Atomic Green Lantern's Grab can grab you through walls.
Skill Usage
You need to understand what your skills allow you to do to play effectively. Some are straight forward and just deal damage or provide a shield, but some can be used in creative ways, such as using engage skills to disengage in the right circumstances as shown above.
Another thing to keep in mind is skill combos. Many champions have kits that have skills that compliment each other. There is generally a progression of skill usage that is most effective, but sometimes you need to change it in order to maximize your damage or utility. Finding which order of skill usage is paramount to the success of playing as some champions.
While some skills auto-lock on a selected target, there is another category of skills called "skill shots". Skill shots don't require a target to hit and will be aimed at whatever location you target. At a glance, it might seems that skill shots are worse than lock on skills because they can miss, but skill shots enable you to make high skill plays as the name implies. Skill shots allow you do a couple of things:
Hit opponents that are out of range, but will be in range by the time a skill reaches its target
Hit opponents that you can't see. This includes opponents in stealth areas or opponents that have ran into the fog of war and are no longer visible. The most common scenario is an opponent that has just rounded the corner.
Effective use of skill shots help you pick up kills against opponents running away and poking from a distance. Skill shots also tend to have longer ranges than skills that require a target so these tend to be the skills that players will use to poke at enemies. Poking refers to dealing damage with attacks (Skills or Basic Attacks) to harass the enemy without fully engaging the opponent.
Another type of skill that is useful to master are skills that reset your Basic Attack Cooldown. What this means is that if your Basic Attack is on cooldown (you just attacked), you can use this type of skill to ready your Basic Attack again. Once you hit with it, it will hit with your Basic Attack including the effects of the skill. The key to using these kinds of skills is to do it immediately after hitting with an auto attack to essentially attack twice in quick succession to rack up the damage. These types of attacks are usually on Melee Champions and the range of the skill is 50 more than your Basic Attack to allow for you to chain the two together.
Game Mechanics
Experience & Champion Levels
When enemy drones, towers, or champions are destroyed and your champion is nearby, your champion will gain experience. Experience is split between all champions that are close enough to the action. As your champion gains experience they will level up. When leveling up, your champion is granted a Skill Point that you can use to improve a skill. As skills gain ranks they generally improve their base stats (more damage, longer duration, etc). In addition, it is important to note that your champion's base stats will also all increase by some amount as you level up. This is important early game when engaging enemy champions as higher levels mean you have access to more/stronger skills and better base stats.
Credits
When enemy drones, towers, or champions are destroyed and your champion is nearby, your champion will gain credits. Unlike other MOBAs, you are not required to last hit to receive credits from a drone. When a drone is destroyed, it will drop a coin. When the coin is picked up, you and any nearby champions will share the credits from that coin. However, if you do manage to last hit a drone, instead of dropping a coin, nearby champions including you will receive the credits automatically. In addition, you will all receive a small bonus amount of credits. So while, last hitting is not required, it is certainly in your best interests. The same holds true for last hitting a tower. If you miss the last hit, it will still drop a coin for a partial amount. Be sure to pick it up as it is usually worth 100+ credits.
Also, denying (credits from last hitting) is not a general strategy in this game, if the opponent fails to last hit a drone, you can pick up the coin that the drone drops to deny your opponents from getting it. This is what is known as "Credit Stomping" in IC.
When a champion or tower is destroyed, champions that participated (assisted) in the destruction will all receive credits equally. This means that the champion that last hits, and all assists are rewarded credits equally. This promotes teamwork and makes it less important who gets the kill as long as the kill happens. There is a base amount of credits for a champion kill that is altered based on the amount of kills the killing champion and killed champion as well as the number of assisting champions. While the champion that kills and the assisting champion(s) all get the same amount of credits, the only instance this is different is First Blood. First Blood refers to the very first kill of the game regardless of team. The champion that secures First Blood will receive a bonus amount of credits.
Tactical Skills/Deployables
Tactical Skills are mainly used in the Gotham Divided map, but is also relevant on Coast City for the Doomsday Device. Tactical Skills appear as orbs and if you pick one up, it will begin to revolve around you. Once you hold one, you can press T to use the skill. When the skill is used, there will be a brief delay and then a pad will drop from the sky or the effect will take place. The impact of the pad drop can actually damage enemies like a meteor. Once deployed, a pad usually provides a relic is available to anyone on your team. Once taken, it will regenerate twice before being destroyed. Be careful on where you drop it as an enemy Champion can destroy it by attacking the pad.
Some deployables are only meant for your team and will disappear when you die, but if the Tactical Skill is gained from defeating a neutral creature, you will drop it when you die. Picking up Tactical Skills from neutral creatures will also take a second or two and is not instant so be wary of this when trying to get at one. Also keep in mind that you can only have 1 tactical skill at a time. If you wish to take another, you must first use the one that you're currently holding.
There are currently 4 maps in IC. However the only map that is open for public queuing is Coast City. All other maps are custom mode only. Each map is fairly unique and provides different pacing and focuses of gameplay.
Coast City Marina
This is similar to the traditional 3 lane map, but only has 2 lanes with a massive jungle. This is the most unique map that IC has to offer and the focus of the game at the moment.
Gotham Heights
Point Capture and Hold map. Owning more points than your opponent drains life from their Power Core and the first to reach 0 loses.
Gotham Divided
This is a traditional 3 lane map. This map is very similar to other mobas with slightly different objectives and a unique mechanic called deployables.
Crime Alley 1v1/2v2
Info Coming Soon.
Coast City
This map is fairly unique and at its core is a fast-paced 2 lane map with an enormous jungle and multiple objects. The top lane is the longer lane, with 3 Turrets in lane while the bottom lane only has 2 Turrets.
Urban Jungle
The Urban Jungle on this map is massive as there are only 2 lanes so that a majority of it lies in between them. There is also jungle around each lane to the top and bottom though so this map is a jungler's paradise if there ever was one. The potential for ganks is extremely high especially in the top lane as there is 1 top laner as opposed to 2 bot laners.
On this map there is 1 Destroyer Camp on each side next to the Taco or Hotdog large environmental object. This camp respawns much slower than the others, but should be a jungler's goto when looking for some experience and credits. The experience gained from the first kill is enough to get 2 Champions to level 2 after defeating it. Aside from that, there are 3 camps for the top and bottom jungler each to take advantage of. The large creature in each camp will drop a Health Relic that anyone can take.
Power Relays
Relays are points that unlock after a certain amount of time has passed. There is one relay on each side of the jungle as well as one at the top in the middle. The ones on either side open up first and it is in your best interests to capture it as quickly as possible. Having control of relays gives you benefits based on how many you hold:
1 Relay: Increases credits earned from coins (and last hitting) by 5
2 Relays: Increases credits earned from coins (and last hitting) by 10 and sends Super Drones through the top lane
3 Relays: Increases credits earned from coins (and last hitting) by 10 and sends Super Drones through both lanes
A captured relay will be locked for 4 minutes. If your enemy's relays unlock before yours, you can capture one or more of them to refresh the duration on your relays by 4 minutes. Initially, it should be your Jungler's responsibility to capture the relay. but it's imperative to get it so everyone should be aware. Once the laning phase is complete, all teammates should be ready to contest relays as a team. There are quite important to being able to create enough advantage to win with the super drones.
Raider
The Raider is a neutral creep that spawns after 9 minutes below the bottom lane in the jungle. Destroying it will give everyone on your team that helped, experience and credits. Junglers and the bottom laners should be aware of when it spawns to take advantage of it.
Doomsday Device
The Doomsday Device a large Neutral Creep that spawns after 10 minutes. Defeating it is quite advantageous as it drops the only deployable on this map in the form of the Doomsday Device. The deployable is quite powerful and serves a couple of different purposes:
All enemies caught in the radius of the blast are dealt significant damage.
If a Turret is in the radius of the blast, it will act like an EMP and disable the turret and drones in the blast radius
The Doomsday device does not drop a pad, so once used, its effects are guaranteed to happen. The effect is quite dramatic and probably one of the best moments in all of IC.
Meta
1 Champion to the top lane (usually a tank type that can sustain and survive a gank/escape)
2 Champions to the jungle. Split between the top and bottom jungle (usually an assassin. i.e. someone that has good jungle clear speed and gank potential)
2 Champions to the bottom lane (usually a Marksman or other Carry type and a Support)
Gotham Heights
This is a Point Capture and Hold map. There are 5 points on the map and when one team holds more points than the other team, the team with less points suffers damage to their power core. Each team starts with 500 and the team that is reduced to 0 first loses.
Points
To capture a point, a champion or drone must step foot on the point. For each champion or drone that is on a point, the faster the capture rate. If a champion is on a point and receives damage, it halts the capture briefly. Another point to note is that once a point is captured, it also becomes a turret for the team. The turret will automatically fire upon enemy drones, but will not fire on enemy champions unless there is an ally champion on the point that is being hit by an enemy champion.
Visibility
On the map, the only areas that are visible at all times on the map is the outside lane minus the area in front of each base. All other areas are concealed by the fog of war and only revealed if you have friendly units in the area or your team has placed a camera in the area to grant vision.
Points of Interest
On the map there are 3 speed pads (2 on the top side and one on the bottom). Touching any of these points, increases your speed greatly for a number of seconds.
Scattered throughout the map, there are also health relics that restore health and will/energy. These packs regenerate every 30 seconds after being taken. Keep an eye around the base of the health relics. There are indicator dots that will fill in a circle. Once complete, it will spawn the relic
Orbital Cannon
The Orbital Cannon (Also referred to as OC or "mid") unlocks after 6 minutes. The orbital cannon is a powerful game changing objective to be fought over. It presents itself as a point that needs to be captured. The team that captures it gains it as a point for several minutes as well as spawning Super Drones. These Super Drones are much stronger than regular drones and are capable of capturing a point by themselves if unharassed. In addition, the OC causes large scale environment damage to the enemy side of the capturing team. If a champion is in the blast radius of the OC's blast, they will take some damage roughly as much as a meteor drop in magnitude. After a couple of minutes, the Orbital Cannon will become neutral for some time before unlocking again. Each time, it will fire larger blasts, causing more destruction and damage. It will fire a total of 3 times, and the third time, it will destroy the middle area of the map. This is important as this means that you can no longer use it to traverse to the other side and can leave you trapped when attempting to escape pressure
Meta
4 Champions to the top and 1 to the bottom lane
2/3 Melee/Ranged or 3/2 Melee/Ranged
2/3 Attack/Power or 3/2 Attack/Power
4 Champions to the top means that it will be a 4v4 team fight for the top point. The goal is to cap it and eliminate or force the enemy out. Do not die unnecessarily for the top point. Poke the opponent until you see a champion out of position and punish them for it. If you can't win it, either take your opponent's mid point, or gank bottom
The bottom laner is unique in that they will actually have a laning phase. Your goal as a bottom laner is to get credits from drones and harass your enemy out of the lane. Ideally, you want to kill the enemy bot laner, but having them retreat to base is enough. As long as they aren't in lane, they won't be able to gain credits or experience and you will eventually win the fight. Only capture the enemy point if you are sure that you will not get ganked from above. Also remember that if you capture the point, at least for a small amount of time, you won't be able to farm any credits in the bottom lane. Once you gain some experience and credits, you can roam with your team and help them apply pressure. If you find yourself dying, either attempt to farm safer, or leave the lane and help your team elsewhere. It will do your team no good if you are constantly dying to the enemy bot laner
Tips & Tricks
You only need to hold 3 points to win the game. Do not over extend and attempt to capture more points than you need. Attempting to capture a point deep into opponent territory can mean an easy kill and free credits for the opponent's team
Never go anywhere alone unless you are the bot laner. Always expect to be going up against at least 2 or more champions when moving towards points or roaming the jungle. As the bot laner, always pay attention to the fog of war around you and retreat immediately if you think the enemy is attempting to gank you
Do not camp points. Even if you are "defending" it, do not stand on the point. If the enemy can see you, that's an advantage for them. They will wait until they have enough team members to dive you and win the point.
Along with the note above, stay away from the outside track. This is a visible area for the enemy team and they can track your movements. Always use the jungle to move and always use the speed pads. While you might have to go out of your way to get to a speed pad, the speed boost you get will make your total time to a point nearly the same. The important part is that if you encounter trouble inside the jungle and need to adjust your route, you will be doing so at super speed
Winning the top point is not crucial to winning the map, but you will need to get 3 points to deal damage to the opponent. If the opponent has a strong presence at a particular point, apply pressure to another point of theirs or multiple points of theirs. It will force a response from them and allow you to regain control
If you happen to be missing a member of your team for the initial top fight, instead of trying to win top, you can immediately gank the bottom point to capture it and kill the bot laner. This will allow you to keep momentum going.
Team coordination is a strong factor in winning this map. Drones do not play as large of a role and there is only 1 objective (Orbital Cannon) which is not something you want to attempt without a majority of your team. Use pings and chat wisely to corral your team to victory. Team toxicity almost always leads to defeat
When the orbital cannon unlocks, it is not always necessary to rush headfirst into it. Before attempting to cap it, make sure you have the majority of your team and make a good guess as to where your opponents are. Ideally, you want to start the Orbital Cannon capture with 3 points. The fight for the cannon can take a while and if you have 3 points to begin, you will be draining points from the enemy for the duration. While it is desirable to being the OC with 3 points, don't delay the fight at the OC to grab a point, especially if the enemy team is already there in numbers. If you die, do not attempt to just run back in there unless you have teammates with you or you're sure the opponent is low life enough for you to kill. If you win a skirmish, but are low on health, recall and regain your health. The enemy has just died so they will be in the same position, but you will probably have more money to spend than them. Finally, if you know you cannot make it in time, or there are too many enemy Champions on the point, do not attempt to go there are all. Instead, head to an enemy point and begin to capture it. Do not neutralize it until the enemy has captured the Orbital Cannon to prevent a Super Drone from coming your way
If you don't have enough time to fully capture a point before going to the OC, you can neutralize it and have your ally drones capture it for you
Gotham Divided
This is your staple 3-lane MOBA map and the one probably most familiar to players coming from different MOBAs. In between each lane (marked in blue below) is an urban jungle full of objectives, neutral creatures, deployables, and more! The top and bottom lanes are longer in length than the middle lane. When the game starts, your base will produce waves of drones that will march in groups through each lane. Champions in lane will farm these drones for credits and experience.
Turrets
Along the path of each lane are 2 turrets for each team. Turrets are strong fortified structures that automatically fire upon enemies in range on all sides. The turret will always shoot at drones before Champions, unless the enemy Champion has damaged an ally champion. Once an allied Champion takes damage, the Turret will immediately refocus on the enemy Champion that dealt the damage. Turrets deal a lot of damage especially early on and should be avoided at all costs without an accompanying ally drone wave. It's important to note that ONLY basic attacks will deal damage to turrets. No skills will deal any damage. Once destroyed, a turret is lost forever. Losing a turret will diminish your map presence so do your best to keep your turrets up. An important feature of turrets is that you are able to buy artifacts while in range. This is a distinction from other MOBAs where you can only buy while at base.
There are also 2 Power Core Turrets that protect your Power Core. These function just like any other Turret and are your last line of defense
Dampeners
Dampeners are located at the end of lanes and are almost identical to turrets except for 2 key differences.
1. When you destroy an enemy Dampener, ally drones that spawn for that lane will now be Super Drones. They are much stronger and sturdier than normal drones and will cause a lot of trouble for the opponent
2. After an amount of time, a Dampener will actually resurrect at full health. During this time, unless you can force the opponent into a worse situation, it is usually best to play defensive near your base until your Dampener is up again so that the Super Drones do not cause further damage to your base.
Urban Jungle and Neutral Creeps
The area in the blue overlay marks the Urban Jungle which lies in between the lanes. The colored dots throughout are the neutral creep camps. Each side is a vertical mirror (The bottom red on the left is the Health camp, while on the right side it is the top red mark). Inside the jungle the Destroyer camps drop either a Health deployable or a Speed deployable. The Destroyer camp outside the Jungle at the top and bottom of the maps drop a Surveillance Tower. This Surveillance Tower like other Tier 2 deployables has a drop radius of about 1/3 the map and offers better functionality. In this case, it has a wider view radius, sees through walls, and takes more hits to destroy.
The top purple dot represents the Raider. This neutral creep is special in that it will give credits and experience to your team globally. It's important to keep cams on it and attempt to destroy it as many times as possible throughout the game to gain advantages for your team. Early on, it might take more than one Champion to destroy it, but later it can be destroyed solo by your Jungler or ADC. When destroyed, it also drops an EMP deployable. An EMP has the ability to disable Turrets and drones in a short radius for a short amount of time. Used on a Turret that has taken some damage already and it will usually mean its destruction. Be careful though because like other deployable pads, the enemy can destroy this one as well. Make sure to coordinate with your team to make the most out of it
The bottom purple dot represents the Leviathan. This is a massive neutral creep that will almost always require more than 1 Champion if not a majority of your team to take down. When destroyed it will drop 3 deployables.
EMP: This is just like the one from the raider
Meteor: This deals large damage in an area and slows enemies caught in the impact
Shield: This provides a shield to all teammates in the area that lasts for several seconds
Using these 3 deployables in a final push can certainly spell defeat for your opponent. Be careful when attempting to engage the Leviathan as engaging at a bad time can mean the opponent can ambush you towards the end and kill your team and steal the deployables
Meta
1 Champion to the top lane (usually a tank type that can sustain and survive a gank/escape)
1 Champion to the mid lane (usually a blaster type that has high damage and wave clear and ideally an escape)
1 Champion to the jungle (usually an assassin. i.e. someone that has good jungle clear speed and gank potential)
2 Champions to the bottom lane (usually a Marksman or other Carry type and a Support)
Conclusion
I hope that you have learned something from reading this guide. I will be updating this guide as I learn more about the game, as the meta changes, or to convey information in a more succinct manner. Comment if you have questions or suggestions. If you're new and want to try the game out, click on this referral link to get started. Check me out on Twitch if you're interested in watching me play or asking questions live. Thanks for checking out my guide :)
I am chronolinq (CH4_chronolinq in-game) and this is my guide for new players to Infinite Crisis (IC). This guide is intended for new players to IC and new players to MOBAs in general. The goal is to introduce new players to the game mechanics and system of IC as well as familiarize them with the different maps. For the rest, from players that have played through the tutorial all the way to veterans, this guide will serve as a reference for specific details.
To progress towards being a better player, the first step is understand what you should be doing. As long as you have the knowledge of how to become a better player, you can continuously to practice it until you realize it. The beginning of learning to become a good player is to understand:
This guide is meant to be general, so if you master the topics listed here, please look toward higher lever guides and map/champion specific guides to help evolve your gameplay.
In general: IC is a PvP (player vs player) game where players play in teams of 5 that must work together to destroy their opponent's Power Core. How is this accomplished? Generally teams work together to create advantage by gaining more experience and credits than their opponents to be higher in champion level and get access to more expensive items as well as completing in-game objectives for various beneficial effects.
Champions
As this game is based on DC Comics, the champions in this game are possibly the coolest part of it. Many classic and recognizable characters exist as champions, but in addition to ones that we are familiar with, there are also different versions of those characters that hail from different universes. With a wide array of champions to choose from, there is bound to be one that you identify with. Choosing a champion is an important first step as you are more likely to keep playing the game if you are playing a champion that you enjoy.
One of the first things that you should ask yourself is, what kind of role do you like best? Do you like to be in the middle of the action, dealing damage to all enemies? Do you like being unkillable? Do you like generating incredible amounts of burst damage? All the champions fall into a couple of different archetypes. From there, you can rank your skills and buy certain items to change your role slightly to fit different needs of your team. The 3 basic ways that champions are categorized are: Basic Attack type, Skill Damage type, and Role. Let's go over these:
Basic Attack Types
Melee: Your basic attacks require your champion to be standing fairly close to the opponent. If you hover over the basic attack icon, you can see the actual range of the attack. The ranges vary based on Champion with
Atomic Wonder Woman and Atomic Green Lantern having some of the longest reaches with their weapons.Ranged: Your basic attacks are ranged. Once you have fired an attack from your champion, the projectile will follow the opponent and is guaranteed to hit unless the target teleports away. I believe the range of all the ranged champions are roughly the same, but there are no artifacts, modifications, or amplifiers that increase your Basic Attack range. The only exception to this is
Atomic Joker, who gains Basic Attack range from leveling his Jack in the Box skill.Skill Damage Types
This refers to the type of damage that your skills deal. It's important to note that regardless of what type the Champion is, Basic Attacks will still always be attack damage.
Attack Damage: These Champions benefit from increasing their Attack Damage. This increases the damage of their skills from the bonus Attack Damage as well as increasing their Basic Attack Damage. This gives the champion higher DPS (damage per second) than most Power Damage Champions. By increasing the damage of basic attacks, It increases the threat level of your champion.
Power Damage: These Champions benefit the most from increasing their Power Damage. This increases the damage their skills, but does not increase their Basic Attack Damage. However, against turrets, you receive a bonus to your Basic Attack that is 40% of your Power Damage. This way, when trying to destroy turrets, your lack of Attack damage does not make your Champion entirely ineffective.
Hybrid Damage: These Champions benefit from both Attack Damage and Power Damage in theory. Unfortunately, there are currently very few champions that are Hybrid and no good items that support the ability to consistently build both effectively. These Champions are generally better off building one type of Damage and it usually tends to be Attack Damage. In addition to the champions that are listed as Hybrid (
Gaslight Batman and Mecha Wonder Woman), there are other champions that have skills that scale on both Attack and Power Damage such as Superman that can be a part of this category.Champion Roles
Assassin: This type of Champion is generally Attack Damage and Melee whose goal is to use their kit to pick off weak targets or deal burst amounts of damage to a target and get out before taking too much damage. Assassins tend to build large amounts of Attack Damage to boost their skills and Basic Attacks, but do not have the Defense/HP to sustain their damage for much longer after the initial engage. For this reason, it is best to target Champions that are weak and attempting to leave a fight. It's important to recognize when to give up the chase because if the opponent kites you for too long (kiting refers to leading a Champion on a chase intentionally), you will eventually run into the opponent's other teammates and they will save their ally and potentially kill you. Assassins generally have very good kits for engaging enemies and some even have methods of getting out quickly. Assassins excel in the early and mid game when they are able to pick off targets in quick bursts, but if the enemy builds enough defense to survive the initial engage, they can seriously threaten you while your skills are on cooldown.
Assassins generally want as much Attack Damage as possible to increase the burst of their kits and Attack Penetration if the opponent is building armor. Assassins are able to deal incredible burst damage through their powerful skills so itemizing Cooldown Reduction is important to be able to use skills as much as possible. Building Attack Speed later in the game will increase your DPS and help you secure kills when the burst from your kit is not enough to kill an enemy.
Blaster: Blasters are like the Power Damage version of Assassins. They are generally Power Damage and Ranged. The goal of a blaster is stay in the back line and safely unload their skills on a single target in an effort to kill or remove the enemy from combat. When it comes to late game, you should have enough cooldown to keep rotating skills. It's important to recognize when you're in danger of being targeted as a Blaster as they tend to have slow move speeds and few effective escape tools. Understanding how much burst damage you can output as a Blaster is key to winning duels against single Champions and whether you can safely engage a Champion without backup. Late in the game, Blasters can shine with how much damage they can deal especially if the enemy has not built Power Armor.
Blasters want to build as much Power Damage as possible and depending on their needs, some Will Regeneration to sustain them through combat so that they are not useless after a full skill rotation. If you find yourself having Will problems, you can build
Doctor Destiny's Dreamstone (2) for the Will Balance keyword or Abin Sur's Lantern (3) to effectively build Will, Power Damage, and Cooldown Reduction (Level 3 is probably the most you want to build it until late game). After/while building Power Damage, Cooldown Reduction will allow Blasters to rotate skills more often. By the end of the game, the Cooldown Reduction built through items in conjunction with the lowered cooldowns of leveled skilled allows blasters to continue casting skills to stay relevant in a long battle.Marksman: Marksman are generally Attack Damage and Ranged. They are also known as Attack Damage Carries (ADC). What this term refers to is the ability of the Marksman to carry the game late if they have the opportunity to gain a lot of credits. Marksmen, like Blasters like to stay in the back lines of fights, but unlike Blasters, they focus on high sustained damage through constant Basic Attacks. Marksmen rely heavily on items to increase their effectiveness in combat and that's why they are less of a threat early in the game. A Marksmen left unchecked has the ability to run through an entire team. While they do not have a lot of HP, most Marksmen have fairly good escapes and can even duel champions 1v1 because of how much damage they can deal and how quickly. In team fights, a Marksman wants to hit the highest threat in range, without putting themselves in danger. Sometimes this means hitting targets like tanks, but being mindful of positioning is key to survival. Always be conscious of who the opponent's damage threats are and attempt to focus them, but default to hitting the easiest to kill target in front of you.
Marksmen want to build Attack Damage early on, then Attack Speed + Critical Chance. Get Armor Penetration if you need to cut through your opponent's Armor. Attack Lifesteal is quite abysmal in this game compared to other mobas and the best choice is usually
Soultaker Katana (4). Cheetah's Claw (4) is a popular item, but I've personally not found it to be any good unless you already have advantage. Building Attack Speed before damage also generally leads to poor results. Remember that if your hits are not dealing much damage, attacking faster will not solve that; especially early.Bruiser: Bruisers are generally Attack Damage and Melee and their main goal is to be on the front lines as a damage threat to draw focus from your back line. Depending on the team composition and what your team needs, you often switch between tanking and being a melee damage dealer. Most Bruisers have some CC (Crowd Control), which allows them to disable enemies and force the opponent to refocus their targets. You should be strong enough to trade damage with opponents and tanky enough to survive hits. For this reason, Bruisers tend to be good dueling champions.
Bruisers benefit from Bonus Health in addition to Attack Damage. If you build health, there are skills for most bruisers that scale with it and will tend to be skills that improve your ability to duel or tank. It's important to build a balance between health and defense as well as enough damage to continue to be a threat. Take note of your options to CC; Knowing when and how to use these skills will be paramount to your success especially in team fights.
Enforcer: Enforcers are generally Power Damage and Melee and their main goal is to jump into combat taking focus and damage from the enemy as well as proving CC for your teammates. Enforcers tend to have strong CC skills which will outright disable enemy champions or a brief time, or force them to re-position themselves in an arrangement that is beneficial to your team. As the tank, you constantly need to be aware of who is targeting who and you generally want the opponent to be targeting you. To be able to survive a fight, you need to be tanky enough to soak up all the damage the opponent is throwing at you, but towards the end of a game, you most likely won't be able to dish that damage out. For this reason it is important to have a damage threat with you if you aren't dueling 1v1. If the damage threat can stay alive and contribute damage, you should focus on keeping the opponent away from them so that they can secure the kill and not let you die. An important note here though, while you are the tank, if you don't have to take damage, don't needless wade through enemy skill shots. Be happy to take a skill shot aimed at your back line, but more damage you can avoid, the longer you can stay in the fight and help your team.
Enforcers want to build Armor to counter your opponent's builds/champions/threats as well as HP to increase survivability (and in most cases some defensive skills on the enforcer). Attack Armor is generally what people build, but if you find that you are consistently dying to a blaster, a blaster is what is in your lane, etc, make sure to build Power Armor to combat that. Also taking not of the keywords are many of the armor options to see what is best to counter build.
Metallo's Heart (3) for Attack Speed, Entropy Aegis (3) against combo champs or 1 particular skill is killing you, Booster Gold's Power Suit (3) if you are tower diving a lot, etc.Controller: Controllers are generally Power Damage and Ranged. A Controllers job during the match is to increase the survivability of all teammates and help secure kills. A successful peel (Act of helping a teammate survive by averting focus or disabling an enemy) can be the difference in winning and losing an encounter. There are many different ways that Controllers can help from healing, shielding, slowing/disabling opponents, or just using their body to draw fire from low health allies. While controllers excel at helping teammates, it doesn't always mean that the Controller themselves can easily escape bad battles. While playing as a controller, it is important to help teammates live, but also to stay out of the focus of your opponents. The longer you stay alive, the longer you can keep your team alive.
Controllers want to build Will and Cooldown Reduction. This allows them to use their skills frequently and many of the defensive skills in the game scale with Will. Most of the time, you will also tend to build some form of Armor to help you survive through long battles, as being a Damage threat is generally not the goal of a Controller. That being said, Controllers currently have the ability to resemble a Blaster in the mid game with high Cooldown reduction and skill rotations. Their damage output quickly falls off since most Controllers are itemized for support.
After you have chosen your champion, understanding how to use them is key. If you know how to use your champion to the fullest, it will enable you to be effective in any situation whether it is dueling, team fighting, or escaping.
Movement
Movement is more than just getting your Champion from point A to B. Being able to move effectively reduces your chances of being hit by attacks or letting you hit with your attacks. Always try and be constantly moving. If you are standing still, an enemy will have no problem hitting you with a skill. When enemies are nearby and looking to engage, try to move in an unpredictable pattern. If you manage to dodge a skill, that increases your chances to winning the encounter and if you are healthy enough to engage, that is usually the time to do so. A missed skills means that there will several seconds at least before the enemy can use the skill again and you will have not taken damage from it.
When using your Basic Attacks, always be moving during the cooldown. After your Basic Attack animation has landed the hit, you can cancel your recovery animation with movement. You won't be able to attack again until the cooldown is over, but during that time you can re-position yourself against the enemy to favor yourself. When chasing someone, if you attack, you stop moving. This means that unless your move speed is faster than your opponents, you will eventually fall out of range. You want to move in the same direction as the enemy after attack if you think they're going to run and you can kill. This is also important if you're fighting near a health relic/drop and need to get to it, but want to continue attacking as much as possible. Lastly, moving around your opponent while attacking can make it harder for your opponent to hit you with skill shots greatly increasing your survivability.
Another important skill to practice is kiting. This is the ability to get an opponent chase you intentionally. This could be done for a number of reasons. One of them is to remove an enemy from a team fight. If you can get enemies to focus you and draw them away from combat, it makes it much easier for your team to finish the fight. Another reason you may want to kite is to draw an enemy into your allies, thus turning an encounter in your favor. Smart players will try not to take the bait, but many players will chase if they think they have the advantage. Effective kiting revolves around being a desirable target and making the opponent believe they can kill you. Champions that are effective at kiting are ones that can deal damage while on the move and continue to be ahead of the enemy. This way, once you decide to stop and fight, they will have taken enough damage where you can hopefully win the engagement. Melee kiting is much more difficult than ranged kiting, but it can be done.
One last important aspect of movement is skill usage. Some skills allow you to dash in a direction, moving you out of harm's way. These skills can also move you closer to a target to be in range to secure a kill. Always use caution when dashing towards an enemy as it means that you can't easily get out if things start to go south. Some of these "dash" type skills are also jumps. What this means is that certain low/thin walls can be jumped over. If you manage to do this while running away from someone, chances are you will live to fight another day. Only specific champions have the skill required to do this, so it is best to test this out before using it in a real match. Some skills instead of dashing, will move/blink you to a target instead. For these skills, a lot of them are used to close the gap against an enemy and secure a kill/start an engagement. It's important to note that while these kinds of skills appear to be offensive only, remember that enemy drones and neutral creeps count as legal targets for the most part and can be used to make an escape.
Moving Through Walls
The following is a list of Champions that have skills that allow you to move through walls. Some are much better than others (skill shots that require no visible target), but others can be used creatively to make plays. As of this writing, no Marksman can move through walls with skills.
Aquaman: If you hit with his Trident of the King, you can follow-up with Might of Atlantis to leap toward the target without regards toward terrain Batman: Martial Arts. Needs a visible enemy target Arcane Green Lantern: Construct Champion. Press Q again when the construct is over the wall Flash: Hyper Vibration allows him to use his Flash Attack to dash through Hawkgirl: Using Soar will allow you to mark a target with Mace Throw. If you manage to mark a target, you can press Q again to jump to the target Joker: Vanish Krypto: Fetch!. Throw the bone over a wall, and press Q again to dash toward the bone's location Robin: Vault Kick Shazam: Shazam! Sinestro: Cull the Weak Superman: Speeding Bullet. Requires a visible enemy champion. You can use Heat Vision to push enemy targets through some walls, and press E again to dash over the wall. By the same token, if you Heat Vision and the target moves behind a wall, you can press E again to dash through the wall to hit them. Swamp Thing: Husk if there is a husk in place. Not really a quick escape though. Attacking him doesn't prevent his teleport unless there's a stun/knock up/down Wonder Woman: Lasso Grab if it hits an enemy target. Protection, requires allied target (including cameras) Atomic Wonder Woman: VaultAnyone with the
Speed Force Battery artifactThe following are champs that have targeted "jump/blink" skills that can go through walls, but because of their limited range, they might not be that useful in actually jumping over a wall. The thinnest wall that I can think of is
Mecha Superman's wall. What's important about these skills is that if Mecha Superman raises the wall in between you and your target AFTER you target and use the skill, your skill will track them and you will move through the wall. Blue Beetle: Lethal Measures while in Infiltrator Mode. Needs a visible enemy target Doomsday: Charge. Needs a visible enemy champion Nightmare Batman: Feral Embrace. Needs a visible enemy champion Gaslight Catwoman: Predator's Grace. Needs a visible enemy target Nightmare Robin: Unnatural Reflexes. Needs a visible target. Feed the Beast, needs a visible enemy Champion Supergirl: Comet. Needs a visible enemy championNot the same, but related:
Atomic Green Lantern's Grab can grab you through walls.Skill Usage
You need to understand what your skills allow you to do to play effectively. Some are straight forward and just deal damage or provide a shield, but some can be used in creative ways, such as using engage skills to disengage in the right circumstances as shown above.
Another thing to keep in mind is skill combos. Many champions have kits that have skills that compliment each other. There is generally a progression of skill usage that is most effective, but sometimes you need to change it in order to maximize your damage or utility. Finding which order of skill usage is paramount to the success of playing as some champions.
While some skills auto-lock on a selected target, there is another category of skills called "skill shots". Skill shots don't require a target to hit and will be aimed at whatever location you target. At a glance, it might seems that skill shots are worse than lock on skills because they can miss, but skill shots enable you to make high skill plays as the name implies. Skill shots allow you do a couple of things:
Effective use of skill shots help you pick up kills against opponents running away and poking from a distance. Skill shots also tend to have longer ranges than skills that require a target so these tend to be the skills that players will use to poke at enemies. Poking refers to dealing damage with attacks (Skills or Basic Attacks) to harass the enemy without fully engaging the opponent.
Another type of skill that is useful to master are skills that reset your Basic Attack Cooldown. What this means is that if your Basic Attack is on cooldown (you just attacked), you can use this type of skill to ready your Basic Attack again. Once you hit with it, it will hit with your Basic Attack including the effects of the skill. The key to using these kinds of skills is to do it immediately after hitting with an auto attack to essentially attack twice in quick succession to rack up the damage. These types of attacks are usually on Melee Champions and the range of the skill is 50 more than your Basic Attack to allow for you to chain the two together.
Game Mechanics
Experience & Champion Levels
When enemy drones, towers, or champions are destroyed and your champion is nearby, your champion will gain experience. Experience is split between all champions that are close enough to the action. As your champion gains experience they will level up. When leveling up, your champion is granted a Skill Point that you can use to improve a skill. As skills gain ranks they generally improve their base stats (more damage, longer duration, etc). In addition, it is important to note that your champion's base stats will also all increase by some amount as you level up. This is important early game when engaging enemy champions as higher levels mean you have access to more/stronger skills and better base stats.
Credits
When enemy drones, towers, or champions are destroyed and your champion is nearby, your champion will gain credits. Unlike other MOBAs, you are not required to last hit to receive credits from a drone. When a drone is destroyed, it will drop a coin. When the coin is picked up, you and any nearby champions will share the credits from that coin. However, if you do manage to last hit a drone, instead of dropping a coin, nearby champions including you will receive the credits automatically. In addition, you will all receive a small bonus amount of credits. So while, last hitting is not required, it is certainly in your best interests. The same holds true for last hitting a tower. If you miss the last hit, it will still drop a coin for a partial amount. Be sure to pick it up as it is usually worth 100+ credits.
Also, denying (credits from last hitting) is not a general strategy in this game, if the opponent fails to last hit a drone, you can pick up the coin that the drone drops to deny your opponents from getting it. This is what is known as "Credit Stomping" in IC.
When a champion or tower is destroyed, champions that participated (assisted) in the destruction will all receive credits equally. This means that the champion that last hits, and all assists are rewarded credits equally. This promotes teamwork and makes it less important who gets the kill as long as the kill happens. There is a base amount of credits for a champion kill that is altered based on the amount of kills the killing champion and killed champion as well as the number of assisting champions. While the champion that kills and the assisting champion(s) all get the same amount of credits, the only instance this is different is First Blood. First Blood refers to the very first kill of the game regardless of team. The champion that secures First Blood will receive a bonus amount of credits.
Tactical Skills/Deployables
Tactical Skills are mainly used in the Gotham Divided map, but is also relevant on Coast City for the Doomsday Device. Tactical Skills appear as orbs and if you pick one up, it will begin to revolve around you. Once you hold one, you can press T to use the skill. When the skill is used, there will be a brief delay and then a pad will drop from the sky or the effect will take place. The impact of the pad drop can actually damage enemies like a meteor. Once deployed, a pad usually provides a relic is available to anyone on your team. Once taken, it will regenerate twice before being destroyed. Be careful on where you drop it as an enemy Champion can destroy it by attacking the pad.
Some deployables are only meant for your team and will disappear when you die, but if the Tactical Skill is gained from defeating a neutral creature, you will drop it when you die. Picking up Tactical Skills from neutral creatures will also take a second or two and is not instant so be wary of this when trying to get at one. Also keep in mind that you can only have 1 tactical skill at a time. If you wish to take another, you must first use the one that you're currently holding.
There are currently 4 maps in IC. However the only map that is open for public queuing is Coast City. All other maps are custom mode only. Each map is fairly unique and provides different pacing and focuses of gameplay.
Coast City Marina
This is similar to the traditional 3 lane map, but only has 2 lanes with a massive jungle. This is the most unique map that IC has to offer and the focus of the game at the moment.
Gotham Heights
Point Capture and Hold map. Owning more points than your opponent drains life from their Power Core and the first to reach 0 loses.
Gotham Divided
This is a traditional 3 lane map. This map is very similar to other mobas with slightly different objectives and a unique mechanic called deployables.
Crime Alley 1v1/2v2
Info Coming Soon.
Coast City
This map is fairly unique and at its core is a fast-paced 2 lane map with an enormous jungle and multiple objects. The top lane is the longer lane, with 3 Turrets in lane while the bottom lane only has 2 Turrets.
Urban Jungle
The Urban Jungle on this map is massive as there are only 2 lanes so that a majority of it lies in between them. There is also jungle around each lane to the top and bottom though so this map is a jungler's paradise if there ever was one. The potential for ganks is extremely high especially in the top lane as there is 1 top laner as opposed to 2 bot laners.
On this map there is 1 Destroyer Camp on each side next to the Taco or Hotdog large environmental object. This camp respawns much slower than the others, but should be a jungler's goto when looking for some experience and credits. The experience gained from the first kill is enough to get 2 Champions to level 2 after defeating it. Aside from that, there are 3 camps for the top and bottom jungler each to take advantage of. The large creature in each camp will drop a Health Relic that anyone can take.
Power Relays
Relays are points that unlock after a certain amount of time has passed. There is one relay on each side of the jungle as well as one at the top in the middle. The ones on either side open up first and it is in your best interests to capture it as quickly as possible. Having control of relays gives you benefits based on how many you hold:
A captured relay will be locked for 4 minutes. If your enemy's relays unlock before yours, you can capture one or more of them to refresh the duration on your relays by 4 minutes. Initially, it should be your Jungler's responsibility to capture the relay. but it's imperative to get it so everyone should be aware. Once the laning phase is complete, all teammates should be ready to contest relays as a team. There are quite important to being able to create enough advantage to win with the super drones.
Raider
The Raider is a neutral creep that spawns after 9 minutes below the bottom lane in the jungle. Destroying it will give everyone on your team that helped, experience and credits. Junglers and the bottom laners should be aware of when it spawns to take advantage of it.
Doomsday Device
The Doomsday Device a large Neutral Creep that spawns after 10 minutes. Defeating it is quite advantageous as it drops the only deployable on this map in the form of the Doomsday Device. The deployable is quite powerful and serves a couple of different purposes:
The Doomsday device does not drop a pad, so once used, its effects are guaranteed to happen. The effect is quite dramatic and probably one of the best moments in all of IC.
Meta
Gotham Heights
This is a Point Capture and Hold map. There are 5 points on the map and when one team holds more points than the other team, the team with less points suffers damage to their power core. Each team starts with 500 and the team that is reduced to 0 first loses.
Points
To capture a point, a champion or drone must step foot on the point. For each champion or drone that is on a point, the faster the capture rate. If a champion is on a point and receives damage, it halts the capture briefly. Another point to note is that once a point is captured, it also becomes a turret for the team. The turret will automatically fire upon enemy drones, but will not fire on enemy champions unless there is an ally champion on the point that is being hit by an enemy champion.
Visibility
On the map, the only areas that are visible at all times on the map is the outside lane minus the area in front of each base. All other areas are concealed by the fog of war and only revealed if you have friendly units in the area or your team has placed a camera in the area to grant vision.
Points of Interest
On the map there are 3 speed pads (2 on the top side and one on the bottom). Touching any of these points, increases your speed greatly for a number of seconds.
Scattered throughout the map, there are also health relics that restore health and will/energy. These packs regenerate every 30 seconds after being taken. Keep an eye around the base of the health relics. There are indicator dots that will fill in a circle. Once complete, it will spawn the relic
Orbital Cannon
The Orbital Cannon (Also referred to as OC or "mid") unlocks after 6 minutes. The orbital cannon is a powerful game changing objective to be fought over. It presents itself as a point that needs to be captured. The team that captures it gains it as a point for several minutes as well as spawning Super Drones. These Super Drones are much stronger than regular drones and are capable of capturing a point by themselves if unharassed. In addition, the OC causes large scale environment damage to the enemy side of the capturing team. If a champion is in the blast radius of the OC's blast, they will take some damage roughly as much as a meteor drop in magnitude. After a couple of minutes, the Orbital Cannon will become neutral for some time before unlocking again. Each time, it will fire larger blasts, causing more destruction and damage. It will fire a total of 3 times, and the third time, it will destroy the middle area of the map. This is important as this means that you can no longer use it to traverse to the other side and can leave you trapped when attempting to escape pressure
Meta
4 Champions to the top means that it will be a 4v4 team fight for the top point. The goal is to cap it and eliminate or force the enemy out. Do not die unnecessarily for the top point. Poke the opponent until you see a champion out of position and punish them for it. If you can't win it, either take your opponent's mid point, or gank bottom
The bottom laner is unique in that they will actually have a laning phase. Your goal as a bottom laner is to get credits from drones and harass your enemy out of the lane. Ideally, you want to kill the enemy bot laner, but having them retreat to base is enough. As long as they aren't in lane, they won't be able to gain credits or experience and you will eventually win the fight. Only capture the enemy point if you are sure that you will not get ganked from above. Also remember that if you capture the point, at least for a small amount of time, you won't be able to farm any credits in the bottom lane. Once you gain some experience and credits, you can roam with your team and help them apply pressure. If you find yourself dying, either attempt to farm safer, or leave the lane and help your team elsewhere. It will do your team no good if you are constantly dying to the enemy bot laner
Tips & Tricks
Gotham Divided
This is your staple 3-lane MOBA map and the one probably most familiar to players coming from different MOBAs. In between each lane (marked in blue below) is an urban jungle full of objectives, neutral creatures, deployables, and more! The top and bottom lanes are longer in length than the middle lane. When the game starts, your base will produce waves of drones that will march in groups through each lane. Champions in lane will farm these drones for credits and experience.
Turrets
Along the path of each lane are 2 turrets for each team. Turrets are strong fortified structures that automatically fire upon enemies in range on all sides. The turret will always shoot at drones before Champions, unless the enemy Champion has damaged an ally champion. Once an allied Champion takes damage, the Turret will immediately refocus on the enemy Champion that dealt the damage. Turrets deal a lot of damage especially early on and should be avoided at all costs without an accompanying ally drone wave. It's important to note that ONLY basic attacks will deal damage to turrets. No skills will deal any damage. Once destroyed, a turret is lost forever. Losing a turret will diminish your map presence so do your best to keep your turrets up. An important feature of turrets is that you are able to buy artifacts while in range. This is a distinction from other MOBAs where you can only buy while at base.
There are also 2 Power Core Turrets that protect your Power Core. These function just like any other Turret and are your last line of defense
Dampeners
Dampeners are located at the end of lanes and are almost identical to turrets except for 2 key differences.
1. When you destroy an enemy Dampener, ally drones that spawn for that lane will now be Super Drones. They are much stronger and sturdier than normal drones and will cause a lot of trouble for the opponent
2. After an amount of time, a Dampener will actually resurrect at full health. During this time, unless you can force the opponent into a worse situation, it is usually best to play defensive near your base until your Dampener is up again so that the Super Drones do not cause further damage to your base.
Urban Jungle and Neutral Creeps
The area in the blue overlay marks the Urban Jungle which lies in between the lanes. The colored dots throughout are the neutral creep camps. Each side is a vertical mirror (The bottom red on the left is the Health camp, while on the right side it is the top red mark). Inside the jungle the Destroyer camps drop either a Health deployable or a Speed deployable. The Destroyer camp outside the Jungle at the top and bottom of the maps drop a Surveillance Tower. This Surveillance Tower like other Tier 2 deployables has a drop radius of about 1/3 the map and offers better functionality. In this case, it has a wider view radius, sees through walls, and takes more hits to destroy.
The top purple dot represents the Raider. This neutral creep is special in that it will give credits and experience to your team globally. It's important to keep cams on it and attempt to destroy it as many times as possible throughout the game to gain advantages for your team. Early on, it might take more than one Champion to destroy it, but later it can be destroyed solo by your Jungler or ADC. When destroyed, it also drops an EMP deployable. An EMP has the ability to disable Turrets and drones in a short radius for a short amount of time. Used on a Turret that has taken some damage already and it will usually mean its destruction. Be careful though because like other deployable pads, the enemy can destroy this one as well. Make sure to coordinate with your team to make the most out of it
The bottom purple dot represents the Leviathan. This is a massive neutral creep that will almost always require more than 1 Champion if not a majority of your team to take down. When destroyed it will drop 3 deployables.
Using these 3 deployables in a final push can certainly spell defeat for your opponent. Be careful when attempting to engage the Leviathan as engaging at a bad time can mean the opponent can ambush you towards the end and kill your team and steal the deployables
Meta
Conclusion
I hope that you have learned something from reading this guide. I will be updating this guide as I learn more about the game, as the meta changes, or to convey information in a more succinct manner. Comment if you have questions or suggestions. If you're new and want to try the game out, click on this referral link to get started. Check me out on Twitch if you're interested in watching me play or asking questions live. Thanks for checking out my guide :)
Latest comments
where the FUCK is the 'guide'? 