Introduction / Fundamentals / Dash / Cut / Wind / Ghost / Shoot / Poke / Nest / Pulse / Leech / Stim / Corp

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Wind plays similarly to Dash in terms of strategy. The efficacy of each highly depends upon level layout and their overall success relies on correctly reading the opponent's movement.

Personally, I believe Wind more useful at low levels of play than high. New players tend to struggle reacting to Wind, given their relatively undeveloped spatial and situational awareness compared to experienced players. Wind pushes such players into cutlines with relative ease (and makes crushing rocks seem such a breeze).

As both Dash and Wind affect the opponent's momentum, many of the tactics covered in the Dash section apply to Wind as well. I'll note, however, that Wind's power does not scale according to your distance from the opponent, as it would with Dash. Therefore, you may activate Wind from directly beside the opponent in situations where you'd be forced to retreat as Dash. This allows you to better pressure the defender with your presence, as well as making Wind's activation generally less telegraphed than Dash's.

However, while Wind may be difficult to anticipate, it is easy to react to. Upon initiation, Wind pushes at only half-strength, and will not push at full strength until it finishes deploying. The defender has plenty of time to begin moving against it.

Once you've successfully pushed the defender against a cutline, the ball will often remain pinned there by the windstream. In such situations, new Wind players frequently struggle to free the ball, opting instead to rush in and pick it up, accidentally throwing themselves against the cutline as well. Remember that once the defender drops the ball, they will remain stunned long enough that you may comfortably throw wind in some other direction before collecting the ball.

You should understand, as well, the ways in which Wind tends to frustrate players, making them anxious and impatient to steal. Try, for example, to hover in the center of a windstream as the defender. One can easily hold still at any random point within a windstream, but to match another player's specific position is much more difficult. When the attacker enters the windstream to approach you, it will often be in such a way that they pass you by, remaining in range to steal only for a short time. Seeing as it takes them such effort to return to your position, and because they'll spend so little time in range anyway, a fear of lost opportunity will frequently possess them, leading them to steal. Even if they don't steal, it will likely take them long enough to reach you again that your shield will have time to recover from a short block. Obviously, all this depends on your opponent's inability to navigate the windstream. If this doesn't give them trouble, the whole gambit is only minimally effective.

There are many such tiny, situational uses for wind. It can be used to "dribble" a ball from one side of the map to the other faster than you could carry it. Cut can slide along a windstream to rapidly increase the length of its cutline. If another player is closing in on you, a windstream can provide a means of retreat they might anticipate. Wind may indeed benefit you on occasion, but an experienced player should easily react to most of Wind's uses, drastically reducing its efficacy at a high level.

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