CHOOSING A LANE
There are 3 “Lanes” and a “Jungle” in the game. The lanes go from top to bottom: Top, Middle (Mid), Bottom (Bot). Top and Bot lanes are typically duo lanes, meaning at least two heroes will be in either of these lanes unless a player decides to Jungle. You won’t see many people jungling when you first start the game but as you advance, you will notice an increase of jungle players.
Which will leave you with 2 solo lanes, and a duo lane. Mid lane is always a solo lane. Bot lane is usually a duo lane, even when there is a Jungler. The Jungle is the area in between each of the lanes, where there are several monster camps, as well as buffs and major objectives for each team.
Which will leave you with 2 solo lanes, and a duo lane. Mid lane is always a solo lane. Bot lane is usually a duo lane, even when there is a Jungler. The Jungle is the area in between each of the lanes, where there are several monster camps, as well as buffs and major objectives for each team.
Which will leave you with 2 solo lanes, and a duo lane. Mid lane is always a solo lane. Bot lane is usually a duo lane, even when there is a Jungler. The Jungle is the area in between each of the lanes, where there are several monster camps, as well as buffs and major objectives for each team.
Which lane you should go to depends on your champion, and then your desired outcome. Mages or a long-range characters typically take the mid lane. You can occasionally get away with going in another lane if up you aren’t completely comfortable being in the solo lane just make sure your team has an adequate replacement for mid.
ADCs, warriors and tanks/bruisers will often be found in the top or bottom lanes, also known as the side lanes. Assassin heroes may occasionally be in one of these lanes due to a players preference and play style. But more often than not they will be in the jungle. Which will be covered below.
JUNGLE CAMPS
In the Jungle there are about 3 small camps, per section, and a larger monster that holds a buff. The smaller camps are easy to farm for xp and gold, and the red (Might Golem) and blue buff (Sage Golem) monsters provide great utility to whoever kills it. The blue buff monster provides a 2% mana regen and 20% cooldown reduction for its killer.
The Red buff monster provides a movement speed reduction to targets hit, and a damage over time burn, which provides an excellent way to keep enemies from escaping. These monsters are tethered to their spawning area, so you can’t pull them all around the map, stay within the range indicator going from Green-Yellow-Red, once it reaches red you are in danger of resetting the mob back to full health.
There is also tiny ghost-like dragons in the river that can be killed, that will send out an orb to give vision within the enemies jungle.
This is worth killing anytime you see it, and it can also be killed by anyone in a lane. Definitely, recommend killing this when you are waiting for creeps in your lane, and you can’t rotate to another objective.
On the bottom half of the map you will find the Abyssal Dragon. This is a fairly strong monster, so you probably won’t fight it until you’re around level 8 or 10 depending on your character but killing it provides a nice XP and Gold boost to your entire team.
On the top half of the map you have the Spirit Sentinel and the Dark Slayer. The Spirit Sentinel is on the level of the Abyssal Dragon, it’s not too hard to kill by yourself but it provides a buff as well. The buff Life Force recovers 1% of Max HP every second.
The Dark Slayer is an epic level monster, you will definitely want your team with you before you face off with this guy. He hits hard and is very tanky, he also provides a great team wide buff that gives you +30% damage, with 1% health and mana recovery every second.
TOWERS
In each lane, there are 3 towers, towers fire whenever you enter their danger zone. Towers prioritize creeps over heroes unless you deal damage to the opposing teams hero in tower range, then you will be targeted.
You can cheat the range indicator if you time your attacks just right – when the tower is about to fire on a creep, you can occasionally sneak in auto attacks or abilities onto an enemy hero and back out before it has time to target you. This provides a great way to harass the enemy out of lane or to set them up for a kill shot. Destroying a tower provides gold, and further progresses the game to an end state as towers do not respawn.
The main objective being the base’s crystal, which can also fire tower shots itself. There are a few methods of ending a game. Either you can drive down one lane, destroying all of the towers and pushing into the base with a creep wave. or you can systematically destroy towers from each other lane, and gradually beat back the enemy team.
Destroying Towers should be your main priority! Kills are great but Towers are better. Always be looking for the opportunity to take an enemy tower if its uncontested, in some cases you might even want to abandon your team to a fight, and follow a large creep wave and wipe out as many towers as you can before the enemy can respond.
A lane without a tower or very few towers is highly pressured by the build up of creeps, eventually, the enemy team will have to go clear it or risk losing their tower, and even their base to creep attrition. For instance, if you destroy most of the bottom lane’s tower, and stack up the creep wave for a big push, your team could swap to the other side of the map to either catch out a few enemy players or to take a major objective like the Dark Slayer when the enemy doesn’t have the numbers to respond.
BUSHES
Bushes can be found on the side of lanes, and around various parts of the jungle. They conceal you from enemy vision and allow you to either use them as a means for attack or a way to escape. If you’re jungling, you can use a bush to catch an enemy trying to wander between lanes or you could sneak along a side lane, and into one of the bushes, turning an unsuspecting fight into a 3v2 situation or more.
You have to be careful when you walk near bushes if you haven’t had a prior vision of the enemy, there is no telling who could be inside of it, it could be a single player or in some cases an entire enemy team. Do your best to not face check a bush.
As a laner you can use the bush as a way to dodge in and out of enemy vision, getting your attacks in and retreating before they can deal damage to you. You can also use bushes as hiding spots when you’re running away. either to recall or to use a movement ability in an unseen direction to make your escape.
CONTROLLING THE MAP
Now that you’ve gotten a grasp of the basics, you need to put it all together. It doesn’t matter which lane you are in, or if you’re the jungler- you must always keep an eye on your minimap. This gives you every vital piece of information needed to beat the enemy team. Constantly watching the minimap will keep you from being ganked or give you an idea of when you’re free to push on a lane or you’re free to go after a jungle objective uncontested.
For the early game, try to push the enemy out of lane, it doesn’t matter if you don’t kill them, just force them to recall. Once they do, fast push your wave, apply damage to the tower and then reset once they come back. You can also dip into the nearby jungle camps for additional gold and XP.
Be careful if you’re doing this at low health, this is when you are likely to be surprised by a jungler or a highly mobile hero who was watching the fight. Once you take down your first tower, start looking at the next objective you can get. Try to kill the Dragon once you’re within the appropriate level ranges or group with your teammates and help them kill the enemy, and take down their tower
The repeat this for the other lane. Once the first tier towers are down, you’ve gained a large area of the enemies side of the map. This is when you can start going after their jungle camps or start setting up sneak attacks in their bushes. Look to catch out enemy players solo, and use their death as a method to take more of the map.
Be mindful of how many enemies are in any one lane at a time, if you lose track of the rest of the enemies team, chances are they are on their way to you and you need to retreat. As the game progresses into the later stages, death timers become a crucial part of the game.
If you, your teammates, or the enemy play stupid here, you will be punished with a really long death timer, this provides great pushing opportunities for either side or for a chance to go after the Dark Slayer.
