This is by no means a comprehensive list, however they are at least some of the things you should think about before deciding whether or not you are in a position to all in a particular target.

-Check your target's level
-Check their experience
-Check their items. How many health/mana potions do they have? Do they have more items than you?
-How many minions are present. Are there more of your minions than your minions? Or the other way around.
-Do they have any summoner spells up?
-Where is the enemy jungler?
-What abilities have they used recently?
-Do any of their items give them a shield that pop when they take a burst of damage? Sterak's Gage or Hexdrinker / Maw of Malmortius


If they are higher level than you they may have more abilities than you and they definitely have higher stats than you. Pretty much don't ever fight anyone two levels higher than you by yourself. You will almost always lose. Give up the minions. And ask for help or concede the lane and start roaming and only show up to take them on if you have lots of backup.

Are they about to go up a level? If they go up a level during the middle of fight this can throw off your calculations of what it is going to take to kill them. Also if they have an item like Catalyst the Protector they are going to get back a substantial amount of health and mana when they level up. How do you check experience?

If they have health potions you have to decide how your champion applies damage. If it is the form of burst damage, the sustain over time they get from chugging a health potion might not be an obstacle, but if your damage takes time to apply they may decide the outcome of a fight.

If you take time to apply damage then you need to engage your target in small skirmishes if you think you can come out ahead. This will force them to use their consumables. Once they are out of consumables then you want to look to consider trying for an all-in.

Generally speaking if you have more minions present then you can be pretty liberal about starting up these small skirmishes because if the enemy tries to trade with you, they will lose because of the minion aggro they draw.

However, you will cause the lane to push because while the enemy minions will be targeting you in return, they will not be targeting your minions. And since you already had a minion number advantage, your minions will win against the enemy even if it is ever so slightly and hence start to push toward the enemies side of the map.

So say your are someone like Dr. Mundo that has no hard CC. Guess what. You cannot cancel a Teleport. So if you are winning a fight they can Teleport away right in the middle of the lane and you can't do anything about it.

Again if you are Dr. Mundo you want to be careful about fighting and enemy with Ignite as it cuts the amount that you heal in half along with doing true damage over time to you. That can be a killer combination if you aren't running Quicksilver Sash (and why would you do that as Mundo unless you are going to sell it later in the game?)

If you don't know where the enemy jungler is then any attempt at all-in may turn out to be a bait that results in you being in a 2v1 or possibly even a 3v1 if one of their other laners roams or Teleports in to pile on.

Did they just use their main form mobility? Tristana just burned Rocket Jump? Start sharpening your knives/axe/teeth.

Did Riven just use all three of her Q's to farm the minion wave? That means she has no knock-up and much less mobility for a time. Still has a dash and a stun though....decisions, decisions.

Do they have any shields? Shields are huge block as far as finishing off targets. Lulu is a pain in the *** for multiple reasons, one of which is the massive shield she can give herself or a target of her choosing if she is running AP. If she is going support, the shield is still a thing, but the magnitude of the shield will be less substantial.