League of Legends (LoL) Question: Who should cover if someone AFK?

Posted in General 4,351

Who should cover if someone AFK?

Asked by Yasutsuna on October 13, 2015

Let's say if the middle or top AFKs at the start of the game, should the jungle or the support cover the lane?

I always assumed the jungle should but recently in a game, I was a support playing Sona and was told to cover mid instead when mid didn't connect. Our jungler was Gargas if not mistaken.

Answers (8)

(1495) |

It's a bit risky to leave your ADC alone as support and cover a solo lane, since then you'll pretty much have two losing lanes. I would say the jungler is best suited to cover for an afk. They can farm camps quickly with smite in between waves and get a lot of gold and XP to help make up for the 4v5 until your teammate (hopefully) comes back.

(86) |

This is pretty much unexplored territory, as in top-tier it either never happens (tournaments, ranked teams) or when it does most people opt to call an "open mid" so they can lose before 20 min and play another game faster. If the game is a permanent 4v5, chances are it won't be won, and the chances get smaller as the ELO gets higher.

So yeah, there isn't an actual consensus about what to do, but you can either have the jungle/support cover lane or leave the lane open and focus on the rest of the lanes.

If you have a bully lane with strong early game (say or ) you better let that lane alone, since it won't scale as much from farm and won't be able to force-push a lot. On the other hand, a or would need someone to take care of, and that champion should be chosen depending on matchups. Also, there are some cases where you shouldn't let your adc alone, like if he's or against a .

In the end, what to do depends on both teams' compositions, so you'll have to think it on a game by game basis. And in any way, optimising an edge case like a 4v5 wouldn't help you too much, since you'll probably lose most of them either way.

(86) |

Some lane bullies aren't really good late game, and in low ELOs they wouldn't farm that much even when freefarming. The point is leaving the lane alone when having the jungle stay there would only give kills on top of minion gold (jungle yi better keep farming the jungle rather than going against darius). Then again, it's situational, and there isn't a "pro-player consensus", so do as you please as long as you have a solid reason to do so.

(57) |

the lane will scale massively if it is left to farm by itself. kills aren't worth THAT much and if the enemy is free farming they should get almost every minion and they can push the waves in and get towers rather quickly depending on the champion

(353) |

i hate how this open mid thing is coming into na

(316) |

Alternatively, you declare in all chat "My team sux" and proceed to afk farm in the jungle

All Depends If your adc can solo lane. Most jungle can go Top but not all can mid.

The jungler got to cover the lane, the chances to win are smaller, but itsn't impossible to win.

Personally, I'd let the support "watch" the lane if it is mid, or the jungler can watch mid. But it all depends on the team comp you're up against. You have to know what capabilities the enemy team has on you. Especially if you're missing a player at the start of the game.

Jungle. Most supports can't solo lane for a reason. Although it would be funny if they said that the jungler is camping the lane.

(57) |

most of the time the jungler should. However, on a personal note, if i was playing I'd be comfortable with telling my support to go mid. I feel rather comfortable with ezreal in a 1v2 situation if i had to do it. I know that i can farm with q and play safe with that champion, I've been in that situation before. The enemy adc will likely be able to free farm but i can farm and poke with q and stuff and maybe i can pick one of them off if they screw up.

-1