|
|
Mid Lane
How to play it and what to do.
x Trading In Lane
|
Auto attacks are the first form of damage trading in lane. A key to understanding auto attack trades is to understand auto attack range. The greater the gap in auto attack range between two champions, the easier it is for the champion with the higher range to get in auto attacks. Mid laners often pack more damage into their spells, but auto attacks still add up in lane.
In addition to auto attacks, champion spells are the second form of damage trading in lane. The three pieces of information you must keep track of for spells are range, cooldown, and whether or not the spells pass through minions.
Longer range spells make it easier to harass your opponent without retaliation, like having a longer auto attack range. Spell cooldowns must be tracked so you can prioritize trades when your spells are up and the enemy laner’s spells are still on cooldown. Spells that cannot pass through minions can be easily avoided by standing behind your own minion wave. Landing these spells on the enemy requires taking the enemy minion wave into consideration before using the spell.
x Warding in Mid Lane
Despite being the shortest lane in the game, mid lane can be attacked from all directions due to its central map location. This makes understanding how and when to ward very important in lane.
Unlike top or bot lane, there is no obvious early timing to put down a Warding Totem in preparation for an enemy gank. This is because junglers tend to either end up on the top or bot sides of the map after their initial jungle clear. Junglers pathing to mid-early can and does happen, but that is atypical and harder to predict.
When you do put a Warding Totem down early, you can only cover one of your top and bot sides. Although it does not give vision of both sides, the information revealed can be useful enough to feel safe in lane. Playing to the side of the lane your ward is on allows you to avoid the dark area of the map. For example, warding the top side mid brush allows you to play on the top side of mid lane and avoid the unwarded bot side mid brush altogether.
Mid laners will often swap their Warding Totems out for an Oracle Lens or Farsight Alteration later in the game. Assassins or pick-oriented mages will prefer an Oracle Lens to sweep out enemy wards and catch out an unsuspecting enemy alone. Long range poke mages will prefer a Farsight Alteration to get deeper vision than a Warding Totem can offer. Farsight Alteration can also be useful for finding and sniping out a low health enemy from long range.
x Wave Management
It is important to take stock of the minion waves when going for damage trades in lane. When you damage an enemy champion, the enemy minions will turn their focus from your minions to your champion. So trades are more beneficial to you when your minion wave is bigger than the enemy minion wave. If the enemy minion wave is much larger than your own, you will want to avoid going for a trade that might otherwise seem in your favor.
It is harder to freeze a minion wave mid than it is in top or bot lane. The wave crashes into the turret faster because the lane is shorter, making it functionally harder to freeze. The short nature of the lane also makes it less dangerous to walk up to a frozen minion wave because it is a shorter distance back to your own turret.
This makes pushing the minion wave almost always the optimal strategy as a mid laner. The most obvious benefit of pushing a wave is forcing it to crash into the enemy tower to make the enemy mid laner stay in lane or miss that experience and gold. Pushing the wave also gives you priority on the map because you are able to move more quickly than the laner who is still forced to deal with a minion wave. The enemy mid laner must choose to either be late moving on the map or give up experience, gold, and damage to their turret by ignoring the minion wave.
x Roaming
Roaming is very impactful for a mid laner because it is the center lane on the map. You are always a threat to help out top or bot lane. Mid laners are also usually the closest to their jungler, and as such can make plays on the map together.
It is important to first tend to your minion wave before you roam. Ideally, you will get the minion wave pushed into the enemy turret and then look to roam. You can still roam if you clear the minion wave after the enemy mid clears theirs, but you will have lost tempo on your map movement.
You also need to be aware of the situation on the map you are moving toward. Your allies should have enough health and mana to support you in your gank. It is also helpful if your allies can communicate to you what summoner spells the enemies still have available.
You must be sure that you have a safe path to the lane you want to roam on. The enemy jungler can block your path if you do not have sufficient wards or information on the junglers whereabouts.
You must be logged in to comment. Please login or register.