Can at least 100-250 people tell me how you win games by turtling in base?

MPendragon·2/6/2015, 7:59:42 PM·3 votes·1,313 views

This isn't a troll thread, I am actually trying to learn how to play around this type of strategy.

Out of 9 years of moba gaming, I have never learned how to do this.

I literally can't even count on a single hand, how many times I have won a game by turtling in the base, because I have never done it.

How do you do it?

I mean it seems to be the go-to strategy any time; people are trolling people are feeding you are behind people are refusing to participate in team fights

In my head, I can't mathematically grasp the concept of why it is effective, other than you may or may not get tower assistance IF your enemy dives you.

Legitimate conversation, I won't heckle anybody, I won't play the devil's advocate for once. This is clearly something I need to learn.

20 Comments

Mathbalnase2/6/2015, 8:01:58 PM4 votes

If you weren't a troll, you wouldn't be asking for 250 distinct instructional responses.

MPendragon2/6/2015, 8:41:15 PM2 votes

People suggest I am a troll, for a guy who has 9 years of moba gaming experience, playing to the best of my ability is considered trolling?

I have witnessed things, people can't even begin to imagine.

I've had a team surrender while I was currently getting a pentakill. Not too sure anybody else has ever seen that before. Sorry: before you take that out of context, it was my OWN team that surrendered.

GundayMonday2/6/2015, 8:07:26 PM1 votes

You stall until the experience evens out, your late game scaling kicks in, or the 6 item cap happens for everyone. It also increases the probability (since there's more space for the enemy to move around in) of the enemy making a stupid mistake like trying to 1v5 or 4v5 while their carry farms raptors. It's also safer for your team since they're close to their fountain for homeguard bonuses.

Retillin2/6/2015, 8:12:23 PM1 votes

It's simple. Do you play poker of any kind? If you are low on chips (losing in LoL) you throw away a small pair (you would not bet on a pair of 5s). You wait until you have a strong hand before you push the hand. This minimizes your loses while trying to gain what advantage you can.

I ca not tell you how many games of LoL I have won by turtling. It puts the burden on the other team to take a gamble to try and win. (tower dives, dragon fights, baron, ect...) The longer the game goes, the small the gold gap gets (meaningful gold gap). If you are an ADC with 16k gold vs one with 12k you have a huge advantage (in items). However by turtling the other team can make it so you have 22k and they have 17k. That 5k gold that they gain (going from 12k to 17k) is much more helpful than the 6k you get. At some point, depending on build/role, any gold you get is a total waste. So by turtling you can make the game closer. It is no different than why through out history cities build walls. It is easier to defend while weaker as opposed to attack. Simple really.

mvargus2/6/2015, 8:12:53 PM1 votes

Not only do the turrets help protect you, but you can concentrate on minions and start to claw back some of the gold you are behind. Also the team naturally will end up a bit more organized for team fights as there are a limited number of places to fight, so you are less likely to end up in a 1v5 situation.

I have won more than a few games where 4 of the team went into a defend the base mode while one champ split pushed for the win. Another was won by my team's minions, who had kept driving forward even as the other team battered at our nexus turrets.

Heck just last night I was on a team that won partly because we went into all out defense. At one point I stopped a minion wave from taking a nexus turret that had only a sliver of health left. That turret regened in time to save us when the other team got a baron and our Udyr did finally take out their nexus while we fought of a final charge into our base.

It's not common, but sometimes it works. It seems to happen more often when the team has pretty much stopped communicating. With no one to drive the group forward, everyone falls into a defensive mode and does what they can to protect the base.

Only Play Darius2/6/2015, 8:21:51 PM1 votes

When people refuse to stop camping their inhibitor turrets, I just tell my team to ward up around baron and we take it.

No matter how much they try, they aren't going to be able to protect their turrets from baron minions.

Then again baron's defenses and damage got buffed, so with baron taking as long as it does now to die, and how much damage he spits out, it is often actually easier to steal baron by yourself then it is then to approach baron as a group of 4 and secure the buff. I have seen too many baron throws.

Drunk Rummate2/6/2015, 8:26:35 PM1 votes

basically what happens is, you play passively, the game somehow goes for 40+ minutes despite you being behind in gold, and suddenly everyone is equalized because inventory space has a cap. then you win 1 teamfight and win the game because 80 second death timers.

thats the theory behind turtling. generally i'd rather just FF and move on with my life because i dont see the point in wasting 20-30 minutes of my life over that, but it does make sense if you really care that much about winning.

MPendragon2/6/2015, 8:43:12 PM1 votes

You're explaining why it's effective, you still haven't explained how to do it.

The only strategy I know is going ham, that's all I've ever known. I generally don't synergize well with people who play passive, due to this, which is why i'm asking how to play passively and turtle? I physically don't know how to do it.

DrCyanide2/6/2015, 8:44:59 PM1 votes

One thing that helps this strategy work is you know where the enemy team isn't (aka your base). You don't have to worry about getting flanked, and you know where the enemy is going to come at you from. Gold and XP via the minion waves continue to come to you while you're in this safe area.

You do need to try and snag objectives when you can, you can't just let the enemy team have the entire rest of the map.

From there, you wait for the enemy to make a mistake. The later the game goes, the more a single mistake will cost them.

The math is a combination of Death Timers, Maximum Efficiency of Items (you reach a certain point and it doesn't matter, because you either can't spend more gold or your purchases don't make enough of a difference), and the odds that the other team will do something stupid if they think they've got the upper hand.

Colgate Gator2/6/2015, 8:47:27 PM1 votes

That's a lot of people you want to answer.

You basically win by playing defensively and only picking fights with an advantage, your goal in the game is to trim down the difference in gold (by percentage), since, speaking in general team's gold. losing 15,000G to 16,000G is a much thinner disadvantage than losing 6,000G to 7,000G.

In late game that excess gold won't mater much since everyone will have obtained their major items, etc etc.

I'll be honest tho, this only works in a well balanced team, which is hardly found in the people of SoloQ.

MPendragon2/6/2015, 9:23:19 PM1 votes

Could you give me scenarios that have proven effective for this.

Write out a scenario. Take the time to help a fellow brother out.

Truly Prideful2/6/2015, 9:32:15 PM1 votes

Turtling is basically just what you do to try to stall the game out and get to an equal item level so you can basically nullify the other team's advantage. No matter how ahead they are, everyone caps at 6 items and if you can bring it at least close in items then winning is always possible. This is a little harder now because of the 5 Dragon buff threat plus the pushing power from Baron buff.

You do it in this game by trying to keep up your base turrets / inhibs as long as possible while you trim the gold lead away. If you lose multiple inhibs it gets difficult though.

SmokingPuffin2/6/2015, 9:35:44 PM1 votes

If your team is behind, but you have a better late game, your best plan is to lose as slowly as possible.

If you have all three inhibs, it can be very difficult to crack the base. Gives you the best practical chances of them making a mistake and letting you back in.

Yandere Carry2/6/2015, 9:36:00 PM1 votes

turtle/splitpush so the game drags out and the gold deficit evens out. It doesn't work if your team doesn't scale evenly or better when compared to the other team.

Terff2/7/2015, 2:31:42 AM1 votes

once they have full build extra gold on them is worthless, so who cares if they get extra gold along the map, but if you can reach their full build level you can level out the playing field and have an even advantage.

redniwediS2/6/2015, 8:04:14 PM1 votes

If your enemy is ahead in items and experience, and you can't fight them but have more wave clear, you can turtle in an attempt to catch up on both items and experience. The only thing you will have to do is contest dragon and baron and wait it out.