King of Glory Case Analysis: Donghuang Taiyi and Xiao Qiao are paired up, what should be done if Zhang Liang is banned?

When it comes to top-tier control in the King of Glory, it's definitely Donghuang Taiyi's Star Absorbing Technique and Zhang Liang's Binding Technique. Their advantage lies in their inability to be cleansed. No matter what attack action, agile movement, jump, burrowing, flying, or landing, they can seize the opportunity to pin you down in that brief 0.5 seconds of animation, rendering you unable to move and directly disabling your key skills. Unless you are invincible, even Zhuang Zhou's group cleanse will still have an effect.

Filling in the mid lane is more difficult than filling in the support role.

With only the ban slots remaining and all ten ban slots fully open, some heroes will inevitably be repeated, and the trends are constantly changing. In the past, it was supports, but now it's the turn of assassins and mages. If one person is lucky enough to be freed, they will immediately call for help to pick the hero, and their presence will make people play cautiously and timidly. In the low to mid-ranked games, the single-player mode makes people even less willing to take skills. If they take the hit and no one follows up, it's foolish to give away kills. It is conceivable that team awareness is extremely important.

This case study will examine the mid-lane options. Having seen many examples of fill roles, the focus is often on support, who happens to be the core player. Faced with pressure from the crowd, should they coordinate with teammates or play a defensive, counter-pick role? Our team's lineup consists of Diao Chan, Yu Ji, Doriya, and Han Xin – a perplexing composition. Doriya's skill refresh doesn't maximize its benefits. A soft support and a mage in the top lane – the most obvious message here is the lack of a frontline and crowd control.

A lineup lacking a frontline and crowd control should prioritize maximizing its margin for error.

The enemy team has many things to watch out for: Sun Quan as the marksman, Xiao Qiao as the mage to counter Mi Yue, Donghuang Taiyi as the support, and Liu Bei as the jungler. Mi Yue is a lane bully with invincibility, Liu Bei's ultimate grants immunity to crowd control, and Xiao Qiao can synergize with Donghuang Taiyi to initiate team fights. It seems like our team doesn't have much of a chance of winning.

Zhang Liang would be a good counter, but unfortunately, without a front line and vision, mages are fragile and semi-tanks can't last long. The strategy should focus on increasing the margin for error, so Zhen Ji and Haiyue can be considered. The former is a utility character who is good at controlling and harassing, while the latter pulls people into the illusion to kill them alone. With the presence of Doriya, the two's ultimate skills are very useful in team fights.

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