Views: 2613 Strategy Session #2: Map Awareness
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Hello, and welcome to my second installment of strategy sessions. This is going to be a weekly (or biweekly, haven't decided yet) series of blog posts covering some basic game strategy that is certain to step up your game if you don't do these things already. If you would like a topic for me to touch base on in strategy sessions, let me know in the comments. Let's get to it!
Map awareness is one of the things that pros stress so much, and yet it is still something that I feel players overlook for whatever reason. Have you ever found yourself saying this, "YI IS JUST CAMPING ME FKING GANK FOR ME JUNGLER", or this, "OMG FK NOOBS CALL MIA(or ss for you eu scrubs)"? If you say these phrases, stop blaming your team and get some map awareness. If you are top, buy a ward. If you are mid, buy a ward (or two). If you are bot, buy a ward. This stuff isn't rocket science, but 90% of feeding comes from a lack of map awareness rather than being outlaned. If you have good map awareness, you should NEVER require a mia(although yes I call them and yes I agree they are nice). Now let's shoot into the less ranty side of this post and see what you should be doing to assure you don't get ganked.
While in lane, just look at your damn minimap! See
Annie missing? Play more defensive. Has Warwick been in jungle for a while? Every time you go to last hit a creep, just glance at your minimap. While you are putting the hurt on that tower, your eyes are on the minimap. It wastes you no time, and can possibly save your life. All I'm asking for is a quick glance. Those red circles aren't very hard to spot. This is especially important if you are mid, since you likely will not have both sides of your lane warded at all times.
If you don't have a ward, you should instantly think with a more defensive state of mind. Don't push past river. Additionally, if you notice that their lane is getting more aggressive and pushing the **** out of the lane, your first thought is going to be, "lol this idiot real cocky". In reality, he may be setting up Nocturne to move up into the brush for an easier gank. Think about these kinds of things before they happen. Nobody's perfect, but you've gotta try to keep these things in mind. You'll see your deaths go way down.
This can also benefit you in an offensive way. For example, if you are solo top and you see their Rammus ganking bot, you now know that you are going to be safe from ganks for at least a couple minutes. Take advantage of this, get aggressive.
Finally, if you are laning solo mid and their malz takes off to go bot, FOLLOW HIM! By doing this you can turn a potential double kill for the enemy team into a triple kill for your own. This same rule does not apply to the side lanes in most cases.
Blue - In most cases I like warding the tri-bush top, however this makes you vulnerable to the jungler ganking you through the river. These ganks are less common, but if you are against a weaker ganker (can't close distance as fast), you can play it safe and go for a river ward. This does require faster reaction time, however, so be prepared.
Purple - Pretty simple ward here, ward the river near their entrance to the jungle. You are still vulnerable to a gank through your tribush but these are pretty uncommon and risky ganks for the enemy. You should be weary of these if the other jungler is in your jungle.
You want to choose one side to ward, and unless their jungler is a long range ganker like Nocturne, you'll want to put it in the small bush on one side of the river. Ask your jungler to ward the other side of your lane with his wriggles. By doing this you now have complete dragon coverage/gank coverage. This doesn't happen often, though, so always be on your toes and don't overextend mid our you're gonna pay for it. If your mid opponent suddenly gets aggressive EXPECT to be ganked.
Blue - Ward their jungle entrance at dragon. It's pretty hard to gank blue's bot, but be aware of the AP carry running through your jungle and the dreaded brush gank.
Purple - As with top, take your pick with tri-bush/river. Wards in the river here often are hard to react to, so I generally prefer the tri-bush. However this makes you very vulnerable to ganks down the river, so make sure you got dat map awareness. *cue abrupt ending*
#1: Smartcasting
Map awareness is one of the things that pros stress so much, and yet it is still something that I feel players overlook for whatever reason. Have you ever found yourself saying this, "YI IS JUST CAMPING ME FKING GANK FOR ME JUNGLER", or this, "OMG FK NOOBS CALL MIA(or ss for you eu scrubs)"? If you say these phrases, stop blaming your team and get some map awareness. If you are top, buy a ward. If you are mid, buy a ward (or two). If you are bot, buy a ward. This stuff isn't rocket science, but 90% of feeding comes from a lack of map awareness rather than being outlaned. If you have good map awareness, you should NEVER require a mia(although yes I call them and yes I agree they are nice). Now let's shoot into the less ranty side of this post and see what you should be doing to assure you don't get ganked.
Thought Process
While in lane, just look at your damn minimap! See
Annie missing? Play more defensive. Has Warwick been in jungle for a while? Every time you go to last hit a creep, just glance at your minimap. While you are putting the hurt on that tower, your eyes are on the minimap. It wastes you no time, and can possibly save your life. All I'm asking for is a quick glance. Those red circles aren't very hard to spot. This is especially important if you are mid, since you likely will not have both sides of your lane warded at all times.If you don't have a ward, you should instantly think with a more defensive state of mind. Don't push past river. Additionally, if you notice that their lane is getting more aggressive and pushing the **** out of the lane, your first thought is going to be, "lol this idiot real cocky". In reality, he may be setting up
Nocturne to move up into the brush for an easier gank. Think about these kinds of things before they happen. Nobody's perfect, but you've gotta try to keep these things in mind. You'll see your deaths go way down.This can also benefit you in an offensive way. For example, if you are solo top and you see their
Rammus ganking bot, you now know that you are going to be safe from ganks for at least a couple minutes. Take advantage of this, get aggressive.Finally, if you are laning solo mid and their malz takes off to go bot, FOLLOW HIM! By doing this you can turn a potential double kill for the enemy team into a triple kill for your own. This same rule does not apply to the side lanes in most cases.
Warding Top
Blue - In most cases I like warding the tri-bush top, however this makes you vulnerable to the jungler ganking you through the river. These ganks are less common, but if you are against a weaker ganker (can't close distance as fast), you can play it safe and go for a river ward. This does require faster reaction time, however, so be prepared.
Purple - Pretty simple ward here, ward the river near their entrance to the jungle. You are still vulnerable to a gank through your tribush but these are pretty uncommon and risky ganks for the enemy. You should be weary of these if the other jungler is in your jungle.
Warding Mid
You want to choose one side to ward, and unless their jungler is a long range ganker like
Nocturne, you'll want to put it in the small bush on one side of the river. Ask your jungler to ward the other side of your lane with his wriggles. By doing this you now have complete dragon coverage/gank coverage. This doesn't happen often, though, so always be on your toes and don't overextend mid our you're gonna pay for it. If your mid opponent suddenly gets aggressive EXPECT to be ganked.Warding Bot
Blue - Ward their jungle entrance at dragon. It's pretty hard to gank blue's bot, but be aware of the AP carry running through your jungle and the dreaded brush gank.
Purple - As with top, take your pick with tri-bush/river. Wards in the river here often are hard to react to, so I generally prefer the tri-bush. However this makes you very vulnerable to ganks down the river, so make sure you got dat map awareness. *cue abrupt ending*
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#1: Smartcasting
~Stevo