Positioning is so important, because it wins and loses more games than any other single mechanic in Demigod. 

Anyone can attack.  As proof I will point out that even the simplest nubcake can hit your DG with his. 

But how and when you move to attack or retreat, where you are in relation to other players and the map environment - these things are what separate the newbies from the average from the skilled players. 

We'll take a look at ranged DGs and kiting to start, because it's simple and effective and only 1 in 4 people seem to know it.

Kiting -

1.  Kiting - the ranged DG wants to stay far enough away that he doesn't get hit while maintaining minimum distance for his own attacks.  It isn't complicated 

So when you are Regulus plinking away at Ooze UB, you don't have mines or tower support, and you finally have his attention - you need to run, and you need to do it either faster than him or to a safezone close enough that catching you would kill him.  Don't keep attacking with confidence when he is right up next to you - you will get eaten in most cases*. 

*Of course there are exceptions, but unless you designed the battle to take advantage of those exceptions you need to run away. 

As soon as UB gives up and turns away from you though, you should start plinking away again.  He advances, you retreat.  He retreats, you advance, and the whole time he is losing health and you are staying strong.  This principle is called kiting, so if your ally says "hey - you are feeding kills because you don't kite enough" now you know what he means.. 

2.  Ranged DG include some minion-build Generals, most Reg builds, some Spit-UB builds, most Tower Rooks, and Torchbearer.  (That's right, Tower Rook is a ranged build.  A good Tower Rook kites by maintaining his garden and moving the towers uplane without exposing himself - he does damage at range without taking any, and he can retreat a towergarden as well as advance it)

3.  When your kite falls you will begin taking melee damage - you have become exposed.  You want this to happen only when you are sure you can kill before dying.  If your kite falls before you are sure you can win then you need to get out of there, because you are probably over-extended.  We'll talk more about exposure and extension in a bit. 

OK so now we understand kiting and how it relates to Demigod, right?  As a general rule if what does most of the damage isn't physically attached to your avatar then you should probably learn how to kite.  

The next place I'd like to go with this is how it relates to team games.  To do that we have to look at the nebulous idea of exposure.  The reason I wrote about kiting at all was to give a practical illustration of exposure. 

Exposure - calculation of your position on the map and in relation to allies and enemies. 

1.  About the least exposed position on the map is next to your health crystal with a couple of friendly Support Generals and a Tank UB  in front of you.  It's very hard to die in that position.  (Which is part of why Crucible and Exile are frustrating maps to play Slaughter or Conquest on) 

The most exposed position would be at 100 hp, no mana, no allies, and several enemy towers, grunts, and Demigods focused on you.  At that point you are extremely over-extended and will die.

2.  A skilled player is consistently calculating his exposure and that of his allies and opponents.  When you supporting Heal Sedna is out of mana then your exposure goes up (though you'll never know that unless they tell you - polish UI to include allied mana please).  When there is an enemy Snipe Reg somewhere within sniping distance your exposure goes up.  When you are fighting two DGs by yourself your exposure goes way up.  When you are fighting in the shadow of an enemy tower or against a DG with strong minion or grunt support your exposure goes up.  When you are further away from your allies or your safezone than your opponent then your exposure goes up. 

Flip those factors and your exposure goes down. 

3.  Skilled players are constantly attempting to keep their exposure low while maximizing that of their opponents.  In a skilled game when one player over-extends or becomes too exposed he dies.  (In a *very* balanced skilled game no one dies until the endgame. I've seen games that hit 15 minutes before First Blood)  In newbie games players often fail to take advantage of an opponent's over-extension, so you can feel invincible - then you can come on the forums and talk about how l33t you are ^^

So kiting is a classic exposure mechanic - damage your opponent while maintaining your strength - you are decreasing your exposure while increasing his. 

Now let's apply that to team games with something called Dancing.

Dancing - it's kiting with more than one target, and the player dancing alternates the kite with his partner(s).

1.  Example: If my ally and I are playing a 2v2 on Prison against skilled opponents and he draws fire from both of them he will retreat and I will move up to attack their flank.  When they switch their focus to me I will retreat and he will move up to attack again.  If one opponent becomes exposed we will both attack him, as he retreats his ally will advance and we will break off our attack. 

If both teams are good they will dance like this until one sees an advantage and presses the attack or feels disadvantaged and retreats.  If one DG is ranged or weak or ooM he will always use his ally as cover - if one DG is has better melee or stamina he will always present himself to be the focus of enemy attacks. 

It's called dancing because that's what it looks like - watching two good teams dance you can be forgiven for believing it's a synchronized routine. 

The above paragraphs are my attempt to describe a difficult set of concepts (Replays, please) but if you'd like you can distill it down to this -

2.  When you are being focused on by more than one DG you retreat until they shift focus or the odds change.  When your ally is being focused on you attack until the enemy shift focus or the odds change.

If you retreat or advance too far when dancing then you will become too exposed or expose your ally.  Retreating too far means your ally can't support you and your ally is easy prey, advancing too far means your ally can't support you and you are easy prey.  Dancing is good, over-extension is bad.  We'll talk more about recognizing over-extension in dancing in a sec. 

First I want to emphasize that all things being equal - a good team of dancers will win every skirmish against a good team that doesn't dance.   Please understand I'm not talking about the overall game, you need to balance team skirmishes with lane and flag control, but if you ever skirmish with more than one player then you need to learn to dance. 

Exposure in Dancing

1.  By now most players understand that over-extension into enemy territory is bad.  If you try to solo a couple of enemies or an enemy and an enemy tower you will most likely die.  What people are still having difficulty with is how teamwork can alter the parameters of exposure.

You can chase a dying enemy DG further into a nest of towers if you know you have a shield or heal ally in range who will cover you.  Conversely - in most cases, if you are being chased by an enemy your odds of survival are much better if you can get to a shield or heal ally than they are if you run toward your towers.   

2.  You can become over-extended when you run away.  The most frustrating experience I had recently was trying to get an allied Erebus to stop running so I could shield him and we could kill the enemy Reg chasing him.  He bypassed two sets of towers and was a couple of hits from dying by the time I finally got him to stop - and live to kill his pursuer. 

My ally was thinking as if he was playing a 1v1, he had to escape his enemy.  He needed to adjust his thinking to realize that by fleeing he was over-extending himself - staying to fight actually minimized his exposure.  

So I'll wind this post up before I break the forums, but hopefully we've covered some mechanics that will help newer players take it to the next level.  If you have any questions, anecdotes, or comments on Kiting, Exposure, Dancing, or Team Exposure please post them.  

For more tips on general gameplay click here

Thanks for reading,

Kestrel