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Midlane meta is exclusively about roaming botlane

Sniperkaj·4/29/2018, 1:35:20 AM·62 votes·15,256 views

I am pretty fed up with this meta, where you aren't laning 1v1 at any time after lvl 6, and rarely before that. After lvl 6, my opponent usually doesn't even bother clearing the minions mid anymore, prefering to constantly hovering bot and trying to kill them off. Not just roaming and then coming bat, but staying there for several minutes. This should be a hugely unsuccessful strategy, but it is not for these reasons:

  • First and foremost, botlaners never respect pings anymore. They refuse to back away, even though they can see the enemy, i ping them back, they only would lose a few cs.
  • It is hard to just shove and kill the tower. Any enemy jungler can easily come in, chase down and solokill any mage, even though they (originally) was supposed to be noticeably weaker than solo laners
  • Even if i build up a 50-60 cs lead at 10 minutes, it doesn't matter as the enemy ADC being 15 cs ahead of mine is much more important.

All the way up to S7 i was able to play mages mid, and with a scaling/teamfight strategy i was able to pull a 65 % Xerath winrate over 3 seasons and get to plat 2. This season, i dropped to Gold 5, and either i hard stomp with Fizz, hard babysit bot with Galio, or lose with Xerath - even though my Xerath used to carry in much higher Elo. But as Xerath cannot follow each and every roam, the champ doesn't matter.

58 Comments

Death by Glamour4/29/2018, 2:11:47 AM34 votes

Two things that annoy the hell out of me avout this is your bot expects you to roam after a zed or fizz as a mage forgetting that the enemy jungler is also likely botside aswell.

Your bot always seem to engage after you spam ping that said zed or fzz is on there way bot

Tahminatrix 4/29/2018, 1:50:52 AM15 votes

Right, make Xerath R global. Fixed -Riot staff member.

Nyarlathοtep4/29/2018, 7:26:02 AM13 votes

It is hard to just shove and kill the tower. Any enemy jungler can easily come in, chase down and solokill any mage, even though they (originally) was supposed to be noticeably weaker than solo laners

ΤΗΙS. So much this. And then they wonder why mages prefer to just push the wave and then go bot.

Divine Winds4/29/2018, 1:52:24 PM13 votes

Personally I love it when they blame you for everything. Yeah sorry im an immobile mage who didn't follow talon, one of the most mobile champions in the game. Sorry I won my lane and you just fed my laner a double

PhantomPrankster4/29/2018, 12:12:33 PM9 votes

i can't even LANE as a mage anymore. if i so much as to even CLICK on the enemies half of mid lane the jungler comes in to gank. that is why i don't play mages let alone mid anymore. it is a huge waste of time.

Dasdi964/29/2018, 2:13:04 AM9 votes

Yeah this whole "become a 2nd jungle and roam bot to get adc fed or else" is so dumb. I play mid to become a scaling threat myself, not to suck the adc's dick. Not to mention your bot lane will constantly nag you if you are just farming mid and getting a cs lead and eventually tower. However, botlane always just seems to look at number of kills they have and not cs.

Sp33d Zer04/29/2018, 5:35:36 AM4 votes

Just gonna throw it out there that a 50-60 cs lead mid is far more important than a 15 cs deficit bot at 10 minute.

If you wanna throw kills and deaths in there then sure, but this is just inaccurate.

WrÆth4/29/2018, 4:55:55 PM4 votes

Meta in general right now is exclusively about roaming to other lanes.

Seriously, if you want to determine which champions are good right now, ask yourself, "can this champion impact the map?".

It's so hard anymore to have any solo impact on a game that the only way to consistently win anymore is to force your teammates to get so far ahead that they can't help but do damage.

It's for this exact reason that roles like top used to be shit. Top had no impact at all on the game until they gave them a broken keystone that allowed them to effect the game in a different way (beating your opponents shit in and split pushing to create space on the map).

Some may say then why a role like botlane is so good right now, because it is hard for them to effect the map. However, botlane is unique in that their lane has 2 people, meaning that it snowballs super hard as you can take 1st tower super quickly and translate your map lead to your team.

Champion meta is reflective of this as well. Midlane right now the best picks are taliyah, aurelion sol, and roaming assassins. You need to effect the map or your lane lead doesn't mean shit. Support meta is purely roamy tanky supports, and top you have champs like camille that can gank bot effectively.

Mighty Mortein4/29/2018, 12:43:54 PM2 votes

I've been playing a few matches in mid lately, and I feel like I'm better to shove the lane than counter roam say the LB I'm facing. That's what Ahri is good at. Sure, I know Ahri can roam, but I feel 100% more comfortable spamming MIA pings or literally shouting at my botlane friends in discord that my lane is missing. All 4 times LB roamed bot my last game, I shoved and called MIA many times, all about 6-7 seconds before LB showed up in their lane. 6-7 seconds is more than enough time to get some distance between LB and bot tower. Idk, it's just tilting. I know I should roam, but I fear I'll turn 3 kills into 4.

Beerstein4/29/2018, 2:27:09 AM2 votes

Yeah man, as JG people also expect me to leave, IDK what the heck this is about, they should just lock lanes and close the paths between them.

Mr Mxyzptlk4/29/2018, 2:39:06 PM2 votes

I feel yah buddy. I went from diamond to hardstuck plat 1.

Battalion4/30/2018, 4:54:04 AM2 votes

Mid Lane & Jungle need to roam/gank bot-lane or else you're doing your team a dis-service. Mid-lane is the secondary gank, no reason to gank top lane pretty much ever.

Priority 1: Bot-Lane, Dragon Priority 2: Blue/Red Buff, Mid-lane Priority 3: Normal Farming Priority 4: Rift Herald, Top lane gank

That's how it is from a jungler's perspective.

TyroneWatermelon4/30/2018, 7:43:05 AM1 votes

Bot lane is attracted to danger just like insects to light

Slythion4/29/2018, 1:56:43 AM1 votes

me and my previously 80% wr Plat5 Syndra barely can make it to plat5 at all anymore

I feel bad :(

Snowman Arc4/30/2018, 11:48:53 AM1 votes

I had the same with Viktor. I didn't play many games, but I got from mid silver to Gold 2 with a 64% winrate on Viktor. Now, it just feels miserable to play as Viktor. Not only the champion is nerfed to literal shit, he also takes way too much time to scale, his poke is easily counter nowadays and he also suffers from the same things as any other mid lane mage you mentioned.

Andevar4/30/2018, 7:14:21 AM1 votes

As an assassin mid lane main, I can pretty much tell you that my priority is always bot lane.

From what I've learned this season, everyone is a support to the ADC. The meta revolves around getting the ADC ahead. If I was playing mid lane and I just shoved the wave into the enemy turret and I see both top and bot lane having great opportunities to gank, it's almost always 100% bot lane that I'll gank.

But back to the OP's topic, I'm honestly not sure what's going on on the enemy team, but when you notice a Talon MIA midlane and your mid starts spamming ping, you better start running. Now that I think about it, the whole "botlane leash" item meme that's on the boards isn't a terrible idea lol.

stone the blacks4/29/2018, 1:19:02 PM1 votes

:) AurelionSol

Metal Janna4/29/2018, 5:35:51 AM1 votes

Hey just a tip: if you ping missing on your lane we won't hear it. We'll only notice if we're looking at the minimap at just the right time. You can avoid your laner getting 2 free kills by pinging missing on your lane, and then danger on the botlane.