- Bottom
Kiting (also called orb walking) is alternating attack and move commands so that you walk during the recovery of every single auto-attack and never stand still longer than a windup. It lets a ranged carry keep damaging an enemy while staying out of their reach.
What it is
Every auto-attack has two phases. First comes the windup: your champion has to stand still while the attack animation plays, and the attack launches when it ends. Then comes the winddown, the rest of the attack timer, during which you cannot attack again but are free to do anything else. The game lets you give a new command at any moment after launch without penalty, so the winddown is dead time you can spend walking.
Kiting is using that time on every single auto-attack, not once in a while: attack, and the instant the attack has launched, move; when the timer is ready again, attack again. A move order given before the attack launches interrupts the windup, so that auto never happens. That is why you move only after the projectile leaves your champion.
Doing this needs two separate inputs, a plain move click and an attack-move click, and pressing them one after the other is a must: a single held button cannot do both jobs. The result is a ranged champion that deals full damage while drifting away from melee threats or sidestepping skillshots. The faster your attack speed, the shorter both phases get, so the cycle must get quicker as you build items.
How to do it
- Set up two buttons: move and attack
Kiting needs a move click and an attack click, pressed alternately. By default you move with right click and attack with the attack-move key (A) followed by a left click, the A-click. That works but is slow. The upgrade is the option at the bottom of the Hotkeys tab in Settings that binds attack-move to left click: left click then attacks in one press and right click still moves, so each cycle is one right click and one left click.
- Turn on Attack move on cursor
In the Game tab of Settings, enable Attack move on cursor. Your attack-move click then picks the enemy nearest your cursor instead of the one nearest your champion, which is how you hit the champion you aim at and not the minion standing next to you. Placing the cursor directly on a unit gives that unit as the target.
- Learn the rhythm: attack, watch the launch, move
Left click to attack. Watch your champion's attack animation and the projectile leaving it, and right click to move the moment it has left. Then left click again once your attack is ready. Treat the auto-attack like a spell with a cooldown.
- Click once per attack, never mash
One attack click and one move click per cycle is enough. Hammering the attack button during the winddown does not make the attack come sooner and costs you movement. Let the attack timer, not your finger speed, set the pace.
- Choose where each move click goes
Move away from the nearest threat, but not always in a straight line backward. Sidestep, curve toward your tower or your team, and use move clicks to dodge skillshots you can see. Against a melee champion, step away after each shot and spend your slow or escape early, while they are still a few steps off, not once they are on top of you. A path into a corner or the fog gives the chase back to the enemy.
- Kite forward when you are the chaser
When the target is fleeing, the cycle flips: attack, then use the move click to walk toward them, so they stay inside your range for the next shot. Use the same rhythm, but aim each move click at the target's path, not away from it. Stop chasing when walking forward takes you into their team or turret.
- Tighten the cycle as attack speed rises
As attack speed grows, the windup shrinks, and at very high speeds it is so short that you can barely cancel it. The move window shrinks too. If your champion stops attacking, you are moving too soon; if you stand still between shots, too late.
Watch it
What to watch for: The opening chapter treats auto-attacking like a spell with a cooldown, then covers not mashing A, A versus right click kiting, and not only moving backwards (from 1:35 to 3:46). The attack move settings follow at 4:32.
Video: How to KITE Like a KOREAN CHALLENGER | ADC Settings & Mechanics — Professor DDang
Common mistakes
- You click to move before the projectile has left, which cancels the attack and wastes it. Wait for the launch, then move, and your damage stays full.
- You hold the attack-move key or mash left click. One attack click per cycle, then a move click.
- You only move straight backward. You end up running into walls or the fog and are easy to catch. Mix in sidesteps and curved paths toward safe ground.
- You kite backward while chasing a fleeing target. They walk out of range and you lose the kill. Move toward them between shots instead.
- You rely on automatic attacks after a move order. Idle champions may acquire the nearest unit, which is often a minion, not the champion you wanted. Click the attack yourself, with the cursor on the right target.
- You keep kiting after the enemy has stopped chasing. Once nobody threatens you, stand and attack.
Practice drill
- Practice Tool, one target dummy, a few items with attack speed. Alternate attack and move for thirty seconds, then stand still and attack for thirty seconds. Success is matching the standing damage while moving the whole time.
- In a custom game, let an enemy melee bot walk at you and kite it without being hit, curving away with your move clicks. Repeat after buying more attack speed.