[{quoted}](name=Kai Guy,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=3amz1z9N,comment-id=,timestamp=2017-08-30T00:46:30.190+0000)
I think that if we really want to have a healthy discussion about game state health and changing viability of comps to be wider we will really need to look at all roles and their impact. I feel jungle is the primary reason for the 1 1 2 lane setup meta.
Thoughts?
Well if you want to talk about impact, I can provide an analysis of that. Nothing big, nothing revolutionary, but not commonly thought of.
Mid Laners
Mid laners are home to the burst champions. They are the Queens and Kings for looking at a champion and making their health bar go from Green to Empty in a short time frame. Assassins do this better than mages but in turn, mages have crowd control that can be useful to their team, such as stuns, roots, slows and the like.
In team fights, the mid laner's goal is to use all of their resources on whoever is the biggest threat on the enemy team. If the enemy top laner is the biggest threat, mid should wait for some good timing to use everything they can to get their health down or kill them.
The mid laner's position is the "mid guard" (is there such a position?). They are not in the front lines where they could get picked off by a crowd control ability or engaged by the enemy tank but they are not in the back lines where they can't use one of their common abilities, usually Q, to do decent/moderate damage to the enemy front liners or farther.
They should be behind the tank and fighter but in front of the support and marksmen. Quick response to a team fight starting but not be initiated upon, really.
Top Laners
The top laners role have changed over the seasons, from win top to win the game to now being ehh... but the top laners role typical depends on who they are. Their job is either to be a front liner combatant, be it a tank or fighter, or a lane pressure generator, usually both in higher levels of play.
When generating pressure, if possible, it is sometimes better for the top laner to either continue pushing top or bot when possible, forcing an enemy player, players, or the entire team to stop pushing and address the top laner pushing down their tower or lose it and possibly have it as potential lane to their base. From the new found attention the top laner has, that team can now get objects, such as dragon or another tower with so much attention being place on the top laner. This tactic is know as splitpushing.
As previously mentioned, top laners are in the front line. Now there is a difference between Malphite "Front line" and Riven "Front line," the latter needs to be safer while still being in the front lines; the former needs to be a threat in terms of the very second he sees fit, he will engage.
There is a difference between a Juggernaut or Tank front lines role versus a damaging front line role so lets go into both.
Juggernaut/Tank They are the front liners who, when they see fit, will engage and start a team fight and use their crowd control to inconvenience the enemy. More so tanks, juggernauts deal more damage in turn for less crowd control and usually no engaging ability.
Fighters They are in the front line who usually waits for a very poor positioning on the enemy team, teammate to engage, or waits for the enemy to engage, since they can't themselves, and since they have a lot of damage, they always try to go for whoever they too also feel is a threat but due to their range limitation, may not always be able to do it but they try to when safe and possible.
Junglers
The junglers purpose is to:
- Maximize gold and experience income by going to the jungle and take those resources.
- Assist their team by ganking for them in attempt to get an edge for their teammate and put the enemy behind.
- Be the shot callers in getting Dragon, Baron, Rift Herald (I guess) and competing for it whenever possible.
Aside from point three, the jungler's role is more early game orientated rather than the later portions of the game. Mid game, they still go into the jungle to capitalize on gold and experience points but this is where, depending on the nature of the game, is where is starts to break down a bit. Say the top laner or marksmen taking camps because they have nothing to do or cannot go to lane.
When it comes to team fights, they take up the position depending on their champion.
Fighters-- front lines, be safe but prepared to follow up.
Tanks-- front lines, initiate a team fight and provide crowd control.
Mages-- Mid lane
Marksmen-- Back lines, be safe.
Marksmen
Marksmen are the dps, damage per second, class in the game. They are the constant damage source that ends up getting one killed if they completely forgo a champion in this class. They are meant to be the safest of the five champions by being in the back lines. Their focus is simply to keep auto attacking whoever is closest to them, never prioritizing whoever is the biggest threat on the enemy team.
Due to their dps stature, they are weak and cannot easily fight back in 1v1 against the burst classes of assassins or mages, and the stronger damage of fighters. This weakness lasts until the late game where their damage is strong enough to fight back upon being attacked.
As already mentioned, they are to be in the back lines, being safe and auto attacking the closest enemy within their reach since being killed is easy for they rely on outside stats like Life Steal to keep their health up whereas mages or fighters have some methods of crowd control or sustain to defend themselves.
Support
Supports are one of the main sources of crowd control and the only sources of healing and/or shielding for one's team, aside from the specific champions of Orianna, Lux, Morgana or Karma mid. Their goal is to protect their allies whenever possible while, being safe, provide control to the enemy. They also are a huge source of vision. They are not the ONLY source of vision on a team, they shouldn't be, but their aim is to be a leader in that regards: providing and deny vision whenever possible.
Early game is solely focused on their own marksmen, attempting to use their own crowd control to catch a kill for their marksmen while providing heals and shields to keep their marksmen and themselves alive. As mid to late game progresses, they still provide and deny vision, keep allies alive and hinder enemies with crowd control but they are allowed to focus on whoever they deem important on their team to focus exclusively on.
Supports are a bit tricky on where they are located.
Champions like Thresh, Braum, Leona, Blitcrank or Taric are in the front lines, usually behind the tank but ahead of the fighter because they have crowd control.
More aggressive, non-tank supports, like Nami, Morgana, or Lux are in the mid guard. Behind mages or assassins but still in front of the marksmen.
More passive and protective supports like Janna or Soraka should be next to the marksmen, in the back lines, safely healing and shielding allies, while still stepping forward hindering opponents with their crowd control.
That is really all there is to say about the roles. I didn't really divided into class or sub-class specifics but I mention what the importance of each role offers to this game.
I am aware I did not mention about the gameplay aside from the roles positioning, which is fine; I wanted to focus on the impact or importance of each role. As for the 1-1-2 set-up, I mentioned it but I did not explain it.
"The junglers purpose is to:
- Maximize gold and experience income by going to the jungle and take those resources."
Confused? Allow me to explain. Which is better:
I) Have a duo top lane with their own little partnership going on and competing for cs and dividing experience points in half such as bot lane or
II) Have a solo top laner responsible for all minions top and have someone go to the jungle and get those resources for their own use?
The junglers allow top lane (maybe mid depending on the META, who knows) to be a solo lane and not be another duo. This allows for gold to be spread and capitalizes on experience points.
That answers the question why junglers are, well, junglers. I didn't go into a huge explanation but I hope you all can understand. I hope my analysis of the roles were to everyone's approval. If not, feel free to comment. Just note that I was analyzing their roles in the intended META, not how they are currently played, such as marksmen being way stronger than I gave them credit for in their section of the analysis. That aside, I hope everyone has a good day, best of luck in having a non-toxic match and of course, have fun.
--Ark Sorcerer
