Make sure you snipe from a great distance, or behind an impassable barrier, or from jungle bush, also make sure you open your target cone along the escape route, they will run, and if you target at too oblique an angle they will run sideways to evade and u will be naked for another 50 seconds, advise your teammates to KS you, but wait til you ult, then chase and kill, if they are too aggressive they will scream at you because u are busy reloading while they are engaged, I can wear down any mid champ and have no problem with pains like HEIM, or blitz, or NID, or even Akali, lotus lasts til she comes back, and you can snipe Heim's guns from miles away,

lotus trap minion path and gank pathways, deadly flourish weakened minions then grenage to clean up,all WAY out of range of opponents, if ur opponent is melee, lotus minion clusters, if your opponent is ranged or has jump capability, lotus trap to defend yourself by laying traps between you and cs scrum, so if he advances he/she is slowed and damaged, then W-flourish and root then grenade or even basics once ur damage is up to 400 for basics with the build I just listed

smite aids in farming 5-6 minions a minute ! , stalker blade reduces ganks and is a critical 5th attack spelll you can kill with when you get charged, it is useful for impromptu jg raids, without draining your mana and great for dragons, mostly exhaust wont kill anyone and you have to get too close to use it, shield is useless if you are ranged, I know smite does limited champion damage UNTIL you upgrade it, but it still scares enemies when they realize you have smite and can hit them with it. its a great NON MANA based finisher after trap(E), root(W) then grenade(Q)