Hon Gameplay - Auto-attack/spell Backswing Cancellation - Heroes of Newerth

When you are chasing or in a team fight, there is more then just trowing spells, and auto-attacking.

Things like animation cancellation is what makes the difference between a 1600 and a 1800+. Most time when you watch (pro) HoN replays you can see that on team fight they are always moving the hero without "losing" auto-attacks, that they don't get behind(at least not as much as regular players) when chasing and auto-attacking.
Their enormous amount of actions per minute does not come exclusively from clicking on the ground 20 times in a row just to get from fountain to the shire :D , they are actually "playing" on most of the clicks.

We can say there are three types of animation cancellation:

• Auto-attack Back-swing Cancelation
• Spell Back-swing Cancellation
• Spell Cancellation

Auto-attack Backswing Cancellation

When you give the attack order, the hero must go through the attack animation. This animation consists of two parts: pre-attack animation (required to make the attack) and back-swing animation (optional).
If you order another command while your pre-attack animation is going on you will cancel your attack(this is useful when you are trying to last hit a creep or a tower tricking the enemy hero. So you should do it after preswing animation is finished.
After pre-attack animation finishes, the actual attack will be made, if range the "thing" will be thrown if melee the damage will be dealt. At this point the damage has been done(or will be if range) and there is nothing you can do to cancel that. But what is the point of waiting for the back-swing animation's end to walk or cast a spell?

Back-swing animation can be longer or shorter, depending on the hero, but the important thing is that it can be canceled. It is done by ordering another command right next to the attack(damage if melee, trown if range). So instead of your hero being stationary and doing the back-swing animation, your hero could be running after the enemy or away from him.

Note that by canceling the back-swing animation you wont attack faster, it just allows you to move. This just makes sense on some heroes(where the back-swing animation takes longer). Many of you may think that it is worthless, the moving you can do without "missing" auto-attacks in minimal, but it can make the difference. 

Summary: Right-click an enemy to attack him. When your auto-attack projectile starts flying away (ranged hero) or you deal damage (melee hero), right-click the ground to issue a move command. Your hero will move instead of doing the back-swing animation.

Spell Cancellation

Spell casting animation also consists of pre-spell animation and back-swing(there is also the casting time but lets keep it simple). Note that some spells don't have pre-spell animation(instant spell).But if there is an pre-spell animation and you press the hold key"H" you're canceling the spell and it won't be casted.

This can be very useful to trick your enemies. Examples of heroes with a big pre-cast animation time are Gladiator, Pyromancer, Valk,... on Gladiator Pitfall he will raise is sword , Pyromancer will stun... While they are doing that you can cancel the spell tricking the enemy, and making them try to dodge and "imaginary stun".

Summary: Click to cast the spell and press the 'Hold' key while the pre-spell animation is still running. You have canceled your spell with no mana wasted and no colldown.
 


Spell Back-swing Cancellation


It works on the exact same way then auto-attack back-swing cancellation. But here, the advantage is not only being able to move instead of standing there waiting for the animation to end, but also giving less clues that you have actually casted the spell.

For example: as deadwood you can cast Rotten Grasp and after 2 seconds that selected area will be affected by the spell. Rotten grasp has quite a long and recognizable back-swing animation which can help your enemies to notice. If you cancel the back-swing, maybe your enemy won't notice so easily that you casted the spell and even if they do, you can use that time to move. A good way to avoid being tricked by this is being aware of the opponent mana pool, if it drops you know that it was no bluff.

Summary: Cast the spell and order the hero to move or attack as soon as your hero casts the spell. Your hero will perform the requested command instead of doing the spell back-swing animation.

For improvements leave the tip on comment. Thanks