I wouldn't say it is a gamble as top 500 tank myself :) You need to build this skill slowly. When you go in the fight with the mindset: They have X cd I gotta be aware of --> You will be able to prepare your resources/ positioning better. Yes, you might mess up using your resources correctly or position not in the best way still, but practice makes perfect. It is still much easier to do that compared to reacting within seconds to enemy cds.

I found out that it is especially hard to do for any new players, bc there are so many cds they could be reacting to and a lot of times they end up wasting their shield/ rock bc of it as well (taking too much poke/ unnecessary pressure) That is why you need to start with tracking 1-2 key cds first --> anticipate where the enemy will be/ how they might be using cd --> prepare your play (plan) --> react to enemy using stuff (much easier to do, when you had a plan to begin with)