League of Legends Basic Mechanics Guide

League of Legends Basic Mechanics Guide by aiyzer

Trading

Only trade when you can come out ahead. Last hitting is more important than trading. You can give up one CS if you can attack the enemy for FREE. If you are not in a position to trade, and you are trading, you will take a lot of damage in return, due to over extension. Attack the enemy if they are going for CS, they cannot attack back immediately.

– Harass the enemy if they go for CS. (Master this trade)
– Be careful about your positioning.
– Don’t harass if they have a big creep wave.
– Try to farm behind your ranged minions.

If your Jungler or Support is getting attacked, you can attack their ADC. If your teammates are getting attacked they cannot attack you at the same time. If you want to back off, always attack move. If the enemy is under their tower, you can harass them without retaliation, because they will only focus on last hitting. Do not let them CS for free.

Try not to trade when you feel like it, this will commonly end in a disaster. Also, when teammates hit a grab don’t automatically go in, the enemy can retaliate on you and you take more damage in return. Don’t trade when you’re in the middle of the enemy’s creep wave, all the creeps will turn on you and deal more damage than you thought they would.

Last Hitting

Common mistakes – Hitting the creep too early / late. – Going for 2 creeps at once. – Losing concentration under pressure – Using your AoE first. – Incorrectly softening creeps

Learn the tower behaviour, for Ranged creeps: AA – Tower – AA. Melee creeps: Tower – Tower – AA.

Try to waste the tower attack, kill the creep just when the tower attacks. And when you’re at the tower, try not to get harassed and poked by the enemy. Call for the Jungler if the enemy pushes up to your tower all the time for some free kills. They cannot go back to their turret in time if they get ganked when they’re at your tower.

Identify which creep is dying, and go for that one first. But do not attack a creep who is already getting damaged. If you cannot get the creep with your AA, use a skill to get it. If the enemy is pushing your lane, soft the creeps who are not getting damaged. And when you are not CSing try to harass the enemy while you can.

When you have a big minion wave, draw it to the side so the tower cannot hit all of them. Then proceed to soften the creeps.

Pushing

pros: – You can harass the enemy under the tower. – You deny the enemy CS, and build a CS lead yourself. – It creates pressure, the enemy Jungler will come and you can setup a counter gank.

cons: – You can get ganked. – You’re far away from your tower. (all ins are devastating) – Can give the enemy safety under their tower.

Lane Positioning

Never face check a bush (wait for your support ). Stay away from any cc length, dodge skillshots and any heavy CC like Morgana’s Dark Binding. It is much harder for the enemy to land skillshots when you’re behind your friendly creeps. Check your mini-map regularly, give presence to your jungler.

Read your enemies, if the enemy played very passively and then suddenly the play very aggressive the Jungler can be near. Also if they’re keep standing close near bushes, there might be hiding someone in it. The best way to know if someone is in their is by using and buying wards. Even if you’re the ADC, try to buy wards. This might save you from a gank.

Attack Move

Attack move lets you reposition and you will deal more damage in a short period of time due to animation cancelling. Attack move is essential for kiting and closing the gap to your enemies. This is Attack Move: AA – Move – AA – Move – AA – Move – AA – Move (etc.)

Playing While Behind

If you are behind try not to get hit by skillshots, be extra careful about ganks. Give up some CS, but not everything, against heavy pokers (Caitlyn, Ezreal, Lux, Zyra). Wait for your Jungler to gank your lane, if he’s not ganking because you’re too far behind to come back in to the game, DO NOT flame the Jungler.

Q: Can you explain when exactly to freeze and when to push lane?

Freeze when:

• It’s the early game, you have a CS lead, you are stronger, and your opponent recalled. You can zone them away from the creeps when they return and get an even bigger lead (this is a very dickish move, but an easy way to snowball).
• You can also do the same thing when you are behind. It will deny the enemy a few creeps, secure your own XP and gold from that wave, and maintain good positioning in the lane. Beware if they are stronger than you because they could zone you out, too. Only do this if you have enough health or mana to stay in lane after your opponent returns, otherwise you will be at a disadvantage when they come back.
• Trying to trade with your opponent. If not, your wave will push beyond the middle of the lane, leaving you open to ganks, and making it more difficult to farm the entire wave.

Push when:

• You have lifesteal and need to regain health for sustain.
• You want to roam (Kat, TF, Riven, Talon, etc.)
• The enemy roamed or backed. Your minions will die to the turret and deny them the farm. This push has to be fast enough to reach the turret before the next wave comes. If they roamed, consider following them if you aren’t too far behind, especially if it’s in the jungle. If they are already in a lane, push to the turret.
• Your team needs the map pressure on the turret to prevent a roamer (mid lane especially) or if the enemy might be doing dragon and you have no TP (top lane).
• Your lane is ahead and you can kill the enemy in the lane or dive them under turret.
• You want to deny them CS by forcing them to CS under the turret to deny them some creeps (may backfire if they can easily CS). Don’t do this against certain champs; for other enemies, this is the best laning strategy. Do your homework on that one.
• You can slowly chip away at the turret with autoattacks. Best when in the bot lane, you have an AD champ or someone like Ziggs who has a useful passive, or there is a large friendly wave approaching the turret.
• You have a champ that has difficulty farming (or you’re learning the champ) and the enemy is letting you push or is not in lane. I think in this situation it’s best to secure some gold rather than risk losing CS because of mechanical difficulties while trading or being harassed by the enemy.

These mostly apply to the early-mid game. There are times when you could choose to push or freeze–experience is needed to know what to do when. In general, pushing gives you access to the turret, lifesteal, and immediate gold in exchange for lane position. In late game, the strategy is more complicated, but in general push as fast as you can.