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League of Legends (LoL) Question: When to split push?

Posted in General 17,647

When to split push?

Asked by Kinen on September 14, 2013

I dun' get it ;_;

I see split pushing hailed as a good solo queue strategy, but it seems whenever I try it it's at a moment when I should be with my team or something. I honestly have no idea what is and isn't a good time to split push. Well, I have a vague sense. If you can't escape easily or take take a guaranteed tower then split pushing with no vision on the enemy is probably bad. Don't split push if your death could mean an easy baron/inhib for the enemy, even if you can get a tower (dying for an inhib is worth, perhaps?). If the enemy team has strong engage and they're going Mexican stand off with your team then it's not a good idea.

When to split push? You want to make it so they have to send two people after you, right? Thus giving your group of 4 an advantage to push/siege the lane they're in. However if you are like your teams only damage then leaving them alone is probably a bad idea even with the 4v3 advantage. Erm... Some champions are well suited for split push (high waveclear/strong escapes), although I once won a game by split pushing as support , lol. Going to split push a lane that has minion waves nearish the enemy tower places more pressure than doing so for one with waves nearer yours, I guess?

I apply like none of this in-game besides the bit if "my team needs me" intuition, so maybe I have the right thoughts and just need to apply it... What have I missed?

Answers (2)

(386) |

1. When you are the strongest 1v1 champ in the game: Don't go splitpush if there are people who can easily kill you.

2. If you can rely on your team to not get engaged on (skill wise and in terms of composition: having good disengage)

3. Preferably you have some way to get back in the fight, like a shen ultimate or teleport. Also, you might want to have some kind of escape yourself.

4. As you pointed out, waveclear/pushing power is important. Someone like rengar can take turrets down super quickly, while some other champions (like pantheon) usually lack this waveclear. You can fix this by buying a .

(386) |

Copy paste from a conversation with Thalia Khael: Splitpushing can be quite effective when you can 1v1 anyone in the game. The most champions that are capable of that are top champions, like Irelia, Aatrox and often Shen as well, he just gets too tanky with good base damage.

Basically, you just want to constantly shove the wave while sticking back a little bit so you can't get caught, only when you know where all members on the map are, you can really push a turret. Usually the power simply lies in getting tons of free farm and attracting attention to the lane because they have to deal with waves constantly getting pushed.

The problem for the enemy comes when you are stronger than any individual champion on their team: they will need to send multiple people to you to stop you from doing what you're doing (because otherwise you'll be able to kill the enemy that is there to 'stop' you), and this opens up windows for your team in which to take objectives, from dragons to turrets and nashors.

Obviously the problem is that you'll be partially relying on your team, it is a somewhat risky strategy. Also, as I pointed out, never go deep to hit the turret yourself unless you know where all 5 members (or at least 4) are, if you don't know that, just shove the wave and grab a jungle camp while waiting in safety for the next wave.
Also, as pointed out, it does not work when you are behind because they will just send one man top to kill you and then deal with the other 4 members of your team.

If you're going to watch Season 3 Championships and want to learn a lot about splitpushing, keep an eye on Fnatic (especially xPeke) because they split-push a damn lot.

Split push when your team can apply pressure on the rest of the map. Generally the problem with splitpushing in solo queue is that you won't be able to coordinate all 5 people, so you'll split push and the enemy team will send 4 after you and your team won't accomplish anything on the rest of the map. As others have said, split push when you are strong enough to 1v1 anyone *or* when you are able to run away (shaco, nidalee, and tryndamere common examples).