PvP strats

[FourOhm]

So I'm currently Gold, at around 1800 elo (rank 90 kfm). I've been having a lot of trouble in PvP lately, likely because everyone I play against is now beginning to master their own class, as I am. That being said, I'm going to list each class below, and detail my general strategy against them, as well as list some questions I hope yall can help me answer.

 

BLADE MASTER

Opener: Tricky, because they may use the sword throw/pull, or the dash/stun behind you. I find if they jump around a lot, they tend to prefer the sword pull. All I can say is listen, since it makes a very distinct sound, and don't spam counter or they will throw in the counterless gap. (Note: I have had some success with spamming counter to bait out their throw, but then I immediately backstep after the counter to iframe the throw. Use with caution.)

 

General:

• They E/Q more than you do, and instead of using it as an iframe, it's used as a distraction. if they start doing their E/Q dance around you, I find it best to backstep and keep my front facing them. 
• Unless they used it for iframing, a backstep is almost always followed by a 5 point strike. For some reason.
• If they don't have parry-block, you can rmb to them, which readies their "iron shoulder" retaliation. If you immediately E/Q after dashing to them, you won't get hit by it, and can usually get your E/Q procced. DO NOT USE TRIPLE KICK IMMEDIATELY. Their retaliatory spin move is an iframe. Save it until after the animation finished.
• HM BLOCK: super annoying. I spec ice for this. As soon as they activate HM block, I activate ice, and start basic attacking them to wear down the resist shield. If they stupidly let me wear down the shield without hitting me, then proceed as normal. Typically, they will activate your ice to get you out of their face.
• Their extended combo has multiple dazes, just like us. If you know 100% that they can tech chase correctly, it's better to save your roll so they can't full combo you.
• Don't Tab-slam if you're eyeing each other from a distance. I guarantee you they are spamming block while spamming Q/E.
• If you can afford to take a little damage, F-roll the first hit of their lightning storm and immediately tab-freeze yourself. If they tech chase it, then tab. Don't blow it as soon as you land unless you're low.

 

Questions:

• What on earth do I do when i'm knocked down? They time their LMB to interrupt my 1, they use the blockbreaking shoulder-dash if I ground counter, and they tech chase if I roll. I always feel so helpless.

 

 

BLADE DANCER

Opener: Also tricky, but not as bad. They almost always open with the dash behind you. Be on point with your 180 degree counters.

 

General:

• Use Tiger Pounce (ss - lmb). Use it. Abuse it. It's a dash-knockdown that's limited only by the cooldown on ss, it's unparryable, it ignores chill and any move that restricts dashes. This is the only reason I can fight DES/BD. You can follow it up with a tech chase, or even use it to burn ground counter, then kd them again and stunlock them. The possibilities are endless.
• Same as BM, don't tab-slam if you're eyeing each other from a distance. They expect it.
• IF THEY BLADE DRAW AND YOU'RE KNOCKED DOWN: DO NOT GROUND COUNTER IMMEDIATELY!!! They will ALWAYS wait a good second or so before using the stun-dash. Instead, wait til the absolute last second of your knockdown to ground counter. You'll need practice. Unless they are very very patient, they will almost always hit into your counter, because their blade draw is their damage combo and they don't want to let it go to waste.
• Personally, I spec ice and just use it whenever they Tempest. I feel much too vulnerable otherwise.

 

 

Force Master

Opener: Unless they expect you to be ready for it, they will ALWAYS open with a chill stack to prevent your opener. Run straight at them to feint a flurry opener, then counter. I spec stun counter so it gives me a free stun, which they almost always tab.

 

General:

• I love stun counter. Some people prefer elbow smash, some the iframe counter, but just can't give up a free stun everytime I successfully counter. It helps blow their tab/ss so much faster.
• AVENGING FIST MIDDLE TREE!!! Upon successful counter, you get a free dash to them that ignores chill. 
• Use tab-slam and flurry whenever you can, since most of the time you'll be chilled and unable to use them.
• For some reason, divine veil hits you every second, so if you E/Q inside it, you get a free triple kick.
• If you somehow get Max Agility, ABUSE THE CRAP OUT OF IT! FM's have so few skills that can hit you at this point. 
• Since you'll almost always be chilled, your 4 is the only tech chase you have. Savor it.
• This is somewhat obvious, but do not put yourself in a position where they can freeze you from behind. Good FM's will freeze you, then dash behind you. Make sure that if you use ss (the only freezebreak you have besides tab), you either combo them immediately or iframe.

 

 

Summoner

Opener: Summoners vary quite a bit, but they usually start the same: The stunning cat dash. Sometimes, they will root you first, sometimes they will jump around a bit, but they will always use this dash. Just counter it, and use avenging fist on the summoner for a free kd. A bad summoner will immediately roll, which you should follow with a C. 

 

General:

• Never, EVER, forget that the cat is also in play. You may have the smn stunlocked, but if the cat is free, there are endless ways he can interrupt you, and in the worst case he will grapple you, turning the whole thing around. The good thing about this is that smn's tend to be pretty predictable: As soon as you stun the smn, they will have the cat cc you. After stunning the smn, I always face the cat and counter. Usually it'll proc my counter, so then i can 3rf the smn, then iron shoulder and use that daze to 3rf some more. Q/E is a good alternative to counter, since it gives you a triple kick to extend your stun with.
• SMN counter is the reason you will win or lose the match. If they can get you to hit their counter, you had better be ready with some iframes. As such, here are some times they usually put up counter:
  • Right after cat grapple, expecting you to dash to them
  • Right as your stunlock ends
  • If they blow cooldowns on you
  • (good summoners) right after any cc on you ends
  • (good summoners) when you backstep
• Be careful with triple kicking the counter. SMN's tend to abuse the jumping desync, and the fact that they're moving in the first place makes it nearly impossible to get off a triple kick, because if they are even slightly too far or slightly desynced, your RMB will turn into guiding fist, proccing their counter. I can't count how many times this has happened to me. It's incredibly frustrating.
• MAX AGILITY: Super easy to get vs a summoner. One E/Q should give you max agility without fail. Abuse it.
• Never do a full air combo on the smn unless the cat is out of commission. For some reason air counter invincibility is wonky, and you will almost always be hit by cat cc if you take too long air comboing the summoner.
• Tab-slam goes through dandelion.
• HM counter is godly.
• On that note, don't spam counter. It gives them a free cat grapple. You can try this, but it's risky: Spam counter, then immediately E/Q. The cat will attempt to grapple you, fail due to your iframe, but still get stuck in the animation. It will sit on the ground for 6 seconds doing nothing.
• Against rumblebee summoners, the air combo or daze combo may actually be more deadly than a cat grapple. Don't limit your tabs only to grapples.

 

Question:

• How the hell do I deal with the summoners who heal? It seems no matter how much I stunlock them, If I play it smart and patiently, it gives them so much time to heal. For perspective, Once I drew a match against a healing smn, and the end score totaled to SMN: 60k, Me: 104k. That's completely absurd, and that means I would've killed him twice over. It's absurd to me.

 

 

Destroyer

Opener: Two choices. One: Jumping, gliding into axe throw. Counter it, I guess. Or delay your roll. Most destroyers go for Two: Aoe Jump Stun. It's uncounterable. I find that if the DES runs straight at you from the start of the match, they'll probably use opener two. Just backstep and tiger pounce immediately.

 

General:

• Don't blow your full combo, unless you are 100% sure BOTH their tab and persistence are down, which is rare. Always E/Q a stunlock on them, since they will probably tab it.
• That being said, having two escapes makes them blow tab very very easily. Just don't get caught in it.
• If you spam counter, they will eventually attempt to knee (dashing blockbreaker) you. Don't spam unless you're baiting.
• Be VERY careful of spamming counter near them, they WILL grab you.
• It's pretty easy to get Max Agility from their spins. Note that it doesn't help against aoes like their jump-stun.
• As with BD's, Tiger Pounce is God. In general, knockdowns are god. They're resistant to everything else while spinning anyway.
• Unlike BD and BM, they can't E/Q your tab jump. They have to preemptively iframe with ss or the searing strike (axe-swinging iframe). You can press them into wasting iframes by simply standing at a distance.
• I like to ice when they emberstomp. It's a guaranteed proc, and protects you a little.

 

Questions;

• How the *cricket* do I deal with their two escapes? Between Tab, Persistence, and emberstomp to fill the gaps, I have so few opportunities to combo them. This is honestly the most nonsensical thing I've seen regarding pvp balance - why does the class with the most cc, the tabspin, and emberstomp also given a second cc escape? People will say that "oh it's optional, they have to spec into it", but you would be stupid NOT to spec it. 
• When do I tab during their combo? All their stuns look the same to me, and they don't have any sort of huge burst.

 

 

ASS ASS IN

I'm gonna preface this by saying i'm pretty salty about sins.

Opener: Dear lord, so many options. However, the typical two I see are:

• Immediate smoke screen for stealth, lotus down, shurikens thrown at you. One may be a fakeout to draw out iframes, but they will use the marking star which allows them to daze you and appear behind you. Counter, I guess. Not much else you can do.
• Immediate sprint at you and dash-stealth behind you. If they're good, they will immediately backstep to get away from you. In either case, immediately turn 180 and use Leg Sweep. If you timed it right, you'll hit them out of stealth.
• Alteration to opener Two: Sprint up, start gliding, place lotus on ground, continue gliding, stealth-dash behind you. This is taking advantage of the fact that their sprinting stealth-dash can also be cast while gliding. If you see them place a lotus and continue gliding, sprint the *cricket* away. Once they land they can't windwalk anymore, removing their ability to stealth-dash.

 

General:

• SPEC ELBOW SMASHHHHHHHH DO IT NOW. For some reason counter doesn't break their stealth even though it should reflect the projectile at them. ELBOW SMASH BREAKS THEIR STEALTH DO IT NOW
• Tab-slam breaks decoy, and sins usually don't expect it.
• If you see them backstep in stealth (looks like a bunch of black lines twirling around, hard to describe), they're going to appear behind you with a daze. 180 counter that shit.
• RISKY: If for some reason you are 100% sure they are about to tab. start Flurry on them. It may or may not resist the flash, but that's not the point. It will follow them through their tab, and if you hit it late enough, the 4th hit should break their tab-stealth and daze them. Note that they still have their natural 50% evade while in stealth, hence why it's risky. However, if you pull this off, you've won. Their roll is down and so is their tab.
• I usually release my icetab early against other classes, so I don't give them the upper hand. For some reason sins will still spam abilities at you while you're iced, so I wait until 0.5sec before ice expires to release and immediately counter.
• Don't tab too early. Make them blow their web and at least one opening stun (usually lightning rod) before tabbing. Note that they usually expect this, so don't tab into their iframe.

 

Questions:

• Wtf do I do when they're stealthed? Literally I can only attempt to predict one of the many ways they can engage on me, and then perfectly time a counter or 180 counter or iframe. If they're good enough to wait 0.5 - 1 second before activating things, there's literally no way I can predict it. 
• I feel like I have a lot to put here, but I don't know how to word it. In general, I'd very much appreciate tips against sins. 

 

Warlock

I don't really face warlocks much. Basically, just make sure you have iframes if they timewarp, use the thrall for free counter or Q/E procs, and play defensive until they spend all their cooldowns. It's okay to take some damage - usually I'm at 50%~ hp before I even start attacking.

 

So yeah, that's most of it. If i'm feeling up to it later I might update parts and add a general KFM tip section. Any and all feedback is appreciated, I'm no master myself and would really appreciate some help with sin/des sections.

[Ubercharge]

56 minutes ago, FourOhm said:

I wouldn't consider myself an expert, only reached 2k on my KFM and Summoner, but I do have some experience. 

BLADE MASTER

Questions:

• What on earth do I do when i'm knocked down? They time their LMB to interrupt my 1, they use the blockbreaking shoulder-dash if I ground counter, and they tech chase if I roll. I always feel so helpless.

In regards to begin knocked down, ground game is important, often if you spam your 2 (ground counter) they will know that's what you do and delay attack or equivalent, the trick here is to be unpredictable and swap between using 1 and 2, and also delaying 2 and so on. I don't think I'd reccomend rolling knockdowns vs BM unless you know their dazes are on CD or you have a follow up. This matchup tends to be very volatile, and the tab game is usually what settles the match. Both classes have fairly long CD's and limited escapes, so the matchup usually goes either one bring the other low, and then the tables are turned with the tab daze into your own combo. 
As an extra comment it's important to remember things such as when they are on knockdowned and using counter you can attack into the counter and immediately parry it for a free Iron Shoulder daze. 

Summoner

Question:

• How the hell do I deal with the summoners who heal? It seems no matter how much I stunlock them, If I play it smart and patiently, it gives them so much time to heal. For perspective, Once I drew a match against a healing smn, and the end score totaled to SMN: 60k, Me: 104k. That's completely absurd, and that means I would've killed him twice over. It's absurd to me.
  
  Against summoners you are a bit restricted in the patient game, their cooldowns are lower and every time you drop the pressure you give them time to recover.  I feel for this it's important to understand how the heal works, it simply put do not restore health, but transfer it from the pet to the summoner. Meaning that when the summoner heals for 20%, the cat is also damaged 20%. Which means that no extra health is generated, it is only swapped around. However every time the summoner uses Doom 'n' Bloom or Huzzah! The first being the flowers growing on you with a huge circle around you, it will heal the summoner for a small amount, but will restore 20% hp to party members, pet included. Huzzah! on the other hand drains the summoners HP to use a 5 sec cast which heals the pet every second, this one will generate extra health instead of just transferring it. If the summoner is allowed to channel it they will depending on how it's specced often sacrifice 10% to heal it 30% or something along those lines, more skill points costing more and healing more. The thing about these two is that they generate health and do not just move it around. D'n'B is on an 18s CD, True Friend (20% transfer) on a 24s CD and Huzzah on no CD. Which basically means that if you do close to no damage, the D'n'B alone combined with true friend will heal the summoner consistently over time without any cost. 
  
  TL;DR: You can't give the summoner a break, if you are no threat they will heal for free. Trick here is to keep in mind the pet's health, and ofcourse not attack into it's crouch heal/dmg reduction. 

Destroyer

Questions;

• How the *cricket* do I deal with their two escapes? Between Tab, Persistence, and emberstomp to fill the gaps, I have so few opportunities to combo them. This is honestly the most nonsensical thing I've seen regarding pvp balance - why does the class with the most cc, the tabspin, and emberstomp also given a second cc escape? People will say that "oh it's optional, they have to spec into it", but you would be stupid NOT to spec it. 
• When do I tab during their combo? All their stuns look the same to me, and they don't have any sort of huge burst.
  
  This one is a bit special, the real winner against destroyers is the tech chase. Personally I tend to use max agility or  just SS to run away during emberstomp, fighting when they can't be knocked down is clearly not in your favor when they have the tab spin. The good thing about dazes is that after the roll it's equivalent to a stun, most skilled destroyers will not roll knockdowns, but will roll dazes, use this to push damage with your C & 4, particularly useful is the ground game trick I mentioned earlier (attack into counter to instantly counter it yourself into an Iron Shoulder),  they will usually roll the iron shoulder so just follow it into 4/C and you already got stuns. As most know you can't really do anything about air combos no matter how many escapes you have, so launching them for extra damage is always safe. As for the tab I don't think there is any specific disable to tab, they have several 3 second disables, and I would rather call the tab situational. As in either use it if they pop fury, or use it if you can use the daze for any follow up. It's possible to exhaust their escapes, but usually you are better off just chipping their health. 

ASS ASS IN

Questions:

• Wtf do I do when they're stealthed? Literally I can only attempt to predict one of the many ways they can engage on me, and then perfectly time a counter or 180 counter or iframe. If they're good enough to wait 0.5 - 1 second before activating things, there's literally no way I can predict it. 
• I feel like I have a lot to put here, but I don't know how to word it. In general, I'd very much appreciate tips against sins. 
  
  Things that might be worth noting here is as you mentioned the C flurry into their tab escape, the thing about sins is that they are often very predictable with when they tab. That is vs KFM as soon as they get stunned because they know KFM has very limited ways in getting them out. Before I get to this I'd like to point out that you don't have to 180 counter when they appear behind you, you can also just use your Z for them to be stunned aswell. As Z is 360 degrees you don't need to worry about turning properly. My matchups against sins is usally something like the following: Counter shuriken -> Wait for jump behind you -> Z stun, wait ~0.3 seconds then use C -> They tab while you C and are dazed -> combo from here til' death. 
  Good sins will usually not let this happen twice, and some may be better at saving their escape. But in gold I found this to work against every opponent. It's good to keep lotus in mind aswell, when this occurs I'd reccomend you do some fancy get-sin-out-of-stealth tactics with your tab. It might be worth noting that you can follow the lotus escape with your C aswell if you press it in time after they start flying away. You could always gamble on getting them out using 3 or 4, but it tends to work out poorly for me. 
  In general against sins I feel like staying on the aggressive, tabing early and so on is what's really needed to punish them, they are often easily "scared" you might put it, and will try cowardly tricks once they feel pressured, trying for desperate moves and so on. 
  
  That's just some short answers to some of it based on my personal experience. There is guarranteed someone else who can provide better answers, but hopefully this helps you out a bit, and ofcourse, practice practice practice. 
   

 

Edit: Suck at formatting, separating quotes and text is too hard. You'll figure it out.
Best of luck! - Uber

[FourOhm]

Thanks for the detailed reply,

 

BM: switching it up sounds like a good idea. Probably, delaying is going to be the most effective way.

 

SMN: You pretty much hit on my issues with it, so far I've just been staying alive so I win by time. Going all-in burst against a healing smn is pretty dangerous.

 

DES: Again, hit the nail on the head. DES tend to use 1/2 for knockdowns instead of rolling. I'll try to predict it more.

 

SIN: I like that Z open strat, I'll try it next time. I'll definitely need to practice timing, though. 

 

 

 

 

[Yumcookies]

3 hours ago, FourOhm said:

 

BLADE MASTER

Questions:

• What on earth do I do when i'm knocked down? They time their LMB to interrupt my 1, they use the blockbreaking shoulder-dash if I ground counter, and they tech chase if I roll. I always feel so helpless

 

Summoner

Question:

• How the hell do I deal with the summoners who heal? It seems no matter how much I stunlock them, If I play it smart and patiently, it gives them so much time to heal. For perspective, Once I drew a match against a healing smn, and the end score totaled to SMN: 60k, Me: 104k. That's completely absurd, and that means I would've killed him twice over. It's absurd to me.

 

 

Destroyer

 

Questions;

• How the *cricket* do I deal with their two escapes? Between Tab, Persistence, and emberstomp to fill the gaps, I have so few opportunities to combo them. This is honestly the most nonsensical thing I've seen regarding pvp balance - why does the class with the most cc, the tabspin, and emberstomp also given a second cc escape? People will say that "oh it's optional, they have to spec into it", but you would be stupid NOT to spec it. 
• When do I tab during their combo? All their stuns look the same to me, and they don't have any sort of huge burst.

 

 

ASS ASS IN

Questions:

• Wtf do I do when they're stealthed? Literally I can only attempt to predict one of the many ways they can engage on me, and then perfectly time a counter or 180 counter or iframe. If they're good enough to wait 0.5 - 1 second before activating things, there's literally no way I can predict it. 
• I feel like I have a lot to put here, but I don't know how to word it. In general, I'd very much appreciate tips against sins. 

 

 

Just going to answer some questions as much as to what I do:

BM:

When you're on the ground, sometimes the best wake up option is to do nothing.  BMs will almost always expect you to 1, 2, or f.  Especially if you're a jin female, your get up animation is buggy making them have to time their next kd/ cc.  Obviously the correct answer that a bm should do to a no option wake up is to just do anything - but they'll usually be so focused on the counter play for 1/2/f and miss the empty wake up.  Of course, the empty wake up is just another option and should not always be used.  But the fact that you can sit there and just get up will sometimes psyche a bm out to do something early which you can then maybe get a ground counter off.  It's just all mind games.

 

Summoner:

I found that speccing into firestorm kick improves my pressure a lot -  not only does it do a ton of damage more than the regular triple kick, it gives me a free double cc on the cat and the summoner which means the summoner can't use thee cat pull to kd you/ knock you back and you get a free 3rf combo.  Also, firestorm kick is easy to proc with the amount of times a summoner will hit you during invuln.  Another thing is to try and bait their f rolls with 3 or ss lb so that your dazes will be a lot more effective.  If my flurry hits both the cat and the summoner, I'll typically use shin kick, q/e, r, f into comet strike on both the summoner and the cat.  The q/e after shin kick helps me dodge whatever the cat is doing.  Also, don't be afraid to use your seearing palm even if the summoner has tab.  Just try not to use it in combination with tremor.  Typically you kind of just want to scare them with it so using it in combination if you get a firestorm kick on the cat + summoner you can 3x, 3, z (on both cat + summoner), x, 3x, 3, comet strike, x, x, 4.  Usually summoners will tab at the sight of your searing palm coming out which is a good thing.  Blue buff + tremor 3rf combo is still more than enough to 75-0 a summoner.  A lot of the times you can also pressure the cat fairly heavily too when you see the "conspicuous" buff.  This means the summoner can't party dandelion their cat to save them.

 

Destro:

Their trades are typically better than kfms in the sense like you said, they have 2 cc breaks.  Usually you have to try to see what type of player the destro is in the first round to try to get the mentality of their break timings in order to avoid getting dazed by their regular cc break or parry stunned by their blue buff into spin.  I recommend running firestorm kick on destro the same reason why you run it against bd.  You can q/e their spin to get the kick proc and then use 3 to kd into firestorm kick.  It lets you get that additional cc on them without blowing one of your major cooldowns.  Also, if they're sitting in emberstomp you can q/e to get a proc on your cyclone kick then use your f uppercut to knock them in the air.  Doing this will make their emberstomp proc go away while in the air.  This means as soon as they drop down you can use your z/ v depending on their cc break situation and still stun them.

As for when to tab, it's hard to say.  If you can avoid any of their 2 cc breaks by q/eing it or whatnot and you still have your tab up, you're pretty much golden.  At this point you can probably trade the next cc break with them.  Usually destro will stop their combo early and grab which gives you time since you can ice it.

 

Sin:

Extremely tough match up like you said.  I found that speccing into our 2 middle tree gives us a spammable small aoe that helps in getting sins out of stealth.

 

[Zeykes]

Uber already said most of what I wanted to say, but I have a couple of things to add regardless:

 

BMs are quite simply the ground-game gods due to the following:

• Your 1-getup is easy to react to and is cancelled easily with LB (this goes for all classes naturally, not just BM).
• They can spec their Shoulder Charge (C) to penetrate defense/deflect, dazing you through your ground-counter.
• Regardless of how they spec their C, they will always have their Boot (X), which breaks defense and if so, stuns you for 2 sec. Otherwise it knocks down for 2 sec. This ability has a mere 9 sec cooldown, which is lower than your ground counter CD.
• If they have their block specced to deflect, they can actually deflect your 1-getup, stunning you.
• On top of that they naturally have many ways of tech chasing, but as you mentioned you usually want to save your F roll for dazes anyway.

Solution? Patience. Mindgames. Prayers. You want to be unpredictable. Using ground counter in the last second usually won't help you at all, as they tend to use their X at the end to stun you (if you countered) or knock you down for another 2 sec (if you didn't counter). Because of this, it may be wise to just lie there and save your ground counter for the second KD, forcing them to spend their C or wait it out, preventing them from comboing you on the ground and making them spend more of their cooldowns.

 

 

As for dealing with destroyers:

• You basically never want to fully combo until you know both their escapes are down, which if the destroyer is good, will be very rare. Basically you just gotta chip away ever so slowly at their health until they die.
• Don't waste too many CCs by chaining them, launch and aircombo more often instead (as this is free damage and leads to a KD = possibility for re-catch). Like Uber pointed out, they tend to use their tab-escape early and often since they have two escapes so try to predict it (they tend to use it if you try chaining CCs or when you successfully tech chase).
• You want to save your tab for their persistance, in case they use it offensively (they're able to wrath-anicancel during persistance, and for 4 sec after power slam, and this deals about twice the damage of their normal anicancel).
• HM emberstomp is an annoying stalling tool they tend to use when they have spent most of their cooldowns. They are immune to most CCs in this except launches (and pulls?). Abuse the fact that KFM is one of the few classes that can launch without having to stun/daze first (with smite/leap) and use these aircombos to stall out the emberstomp. You can even do the grapple finisher from the aircombo and just LB three times (as LB isn't counterable), to stall even longer. Or you could simply run away while countering any axe throws and Q/E-ing any leaps.

 

Lastly, the assassins..:

• First of all, spec your 2 into Tiger Strike (tier 2 stage 3, not the PvE one) as this is a cheap 2x5m frontal aoe you can use to try and get them out of stealth if they're forced to approach you.
• I wouldn't recommend using Flurry to predict and catch their tab-escape. It is way too risky, especially now that they have HM decoy (provides a 2 sec i-frame + stealth when triggered). They'll just decoy immediately after tab, and basically get a free catch off of the funny-looking KFM flailing around in thin air. Use your Q/E instead, and (if specced) try to firestorm kick them out of stealth (as this stuns through decoy).
• If your tab-escape is down, you NEED to predict theirs AND catch them without being caught yourself, or you can kiss your HP goodbye.
• Don't feel too bad about losing to sins, they are our hard counter. We have very few tools for dealing with their stealth as compared to other classes, and on top of that they have two escapes. Their kit counters yours, basically. The top KFMs in both EU and NA agree that the sin matchup is nearly unbeatable unless they make mistakes, and even then it's still a very hard fight.

 

EDIT: looks like a couple of the things I mentioned were already said by someone else while I was writing, but oh well.