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Play around your jungler and learn gank timings. There are of course other things you can do to get better, but playing around your junlger and learning gank timings will make your game play a lot more consistent.
What do I mean by playing around your jungler?
1. Keep track of where your junlger is on the map.
If they are on the opposite side of the map then you are weak side. That means you don't have any help coming if you get into trouble, so play like it. Be conservative with your trades with the enemy laners while you are weak side. Expect that the enemy junlger or the nearest laner or both could roam to your lane to try and kill you. (in higher ELO you also have to worry about the enemy support showing up in your lane).
Back away from your tower if you have to in order to stay safe while weak side. (e.g. you know you are going to get dove).
2. If you are strong side you can play more aggressively and in fact you want to take trades with your enemy laner in that situation so that you can get them low, burn summoner spells, or put their abilities on cooldown. Let you junlger know if you burn a summoer spell or if they've used their ultimate. Then when the gank does go down your junlger will have all their cooldowns up so you should be at a significant advantage.
3. If you are strong side and don't have anything else to do, go with your jungler and invade the enemy jungle/river to get vision, take away camps, and catch people in transition. Then go back to your lane and pick up the wave after you are done with that.
Gank timings: Vary a bit based on junlgers. Some can gank at level 2 and some really want to wait until level three. But all junlgers can get level three off of 3 camps (Red, Blue, Gromp). So make a note of when your jungler has done those camps. The enemy jungler is likely to be in a similar position (the only question is if they are on your side of the map or not).
Hint: you can usually tell which side of the map they are likely to be on by noting which laners are late to lane. If the enemy bot laners are late to lane and you are Top lane then the enemy junlger will likely be headed toward Top side to pick up their 2nd buff, though they may take time to clear other camps first, so the timings may not always be mirrored between your jungler and their jungler.
If you are going to be pushed up in lane around the 2:30 mark get a ward down in the most likely gank path for the enemy jungler and watch the mini-map to make sure you are not getting roamed on by the nearest enemy laner.
And if the enemy jungler does not show up to gank or countergank your lane then the opposite side of the map should assume they are about to get ganked. Early the only other alternative is that they enemy jungler is doing a full clear and then will most likely look to reset.
There is much more to the laner + junlger dynamic, but playing weakside vs strongside and knowing when you are likely to get ganked by the enemy junlger will go a long way to help you make your game play more consistent because not dying to a gank and also setting up a gank properly will allow you to get and keep leads.
What do I mean by playing around your jungler?
1. Keep track of where your junlger is on the map.
If they are on the opposite side of the map then you are weak side. That means you don't have any help coming if you get into trouble, so play like it. Be conservative with your trades with the enemy laners while you are weak side. Expect that the enemy junlger or the nearest laner or both could roam to your lane to try and kill you. (in higher ELO you also have to worry about the enemy support showing up in your lane).
Back away from your tower if you have to in order to stay safe while weak side. (e.g. you know you are going to get dove).
2. If you are strong side you can play more aggressively and in fact you want to take trades with your enemy laner in that situation so that you can get them low, burn summoner spells, or put their abilities on cooldown. Let you junlger know if you burn a summoer spell or if they've used their ultimate. Then when the gank does go down your junlger will have all their cooldowns up so you should be at a significant advantage.
3. If you are strong side and don't have anything else to do, go with your jungler and invade the enemy jungle/river to get vision, take away camps, and catch people in transition. Then go back to your lane and pick up the wave after you are done with that.
Gank timings: Vary a bit based on junlgers. Some can gank at level 2 and some really want to wait until level three. But all junlgers can get level three off of 3 camps (Red, Blue, Gromp). So make a note of when your jungler has done those camps. The enemy jungler is likely to be in a similar position (the only question is if they are on your side of the map or not).
Hint: you can usually tell which side of the map they are likely to be on by noting which laners are late to lane. If the enemy bot laners are late to lane and you are Top lane then the enemy junlger will likely be headed toward Top side to pick up their 2nd buff, though they may take time to clear other camps first, so the timings may not always be mirrored between your jungler and their jungler.
If you are going to be pushed up in lane around the 2:30 mark get a ward down in the most likely gank path for the enemy jungler and watch the mini-map to make sure you are not getting roamed on by the nearest enemy laner.
And if the enemy jungler does not show up to gank or countergank your lane then the opposite side of the map should assume they are about to get ganked. Early the only other alternative is that they enemy jungler is doing a full clear and then will most likely look to reset.
There is much more to the laner + junlger dynamic, but playing weakside vs strongside and knowing when you are likely to get ganked by the enemy junlger will go a long way to help you make your game play more consistent because not dying to a gank and also setting up a gank properly will allow you to get and keep leads.
You are welcome @ SELORONIOS. :-)