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Wave Manipulation - Realizations and Questions

Ez HumbleVictor·8/30/2018, 4:58:18 PM·3 votes·3,162 views

I have been playing for quite a few seasons now as a casual player at best, but this season I have been a bit more avid about playing then in recent years. Part of this is that after watching pro play last season (RIP best of 3s) I realized the depth that League's strategy actually reaches. The thing I am beginning to realize this season is that in all phases of the game wave manipulation is maybe the most important aspect of the strategy. I know mechanics, teamfighting, objectives, and vision are all really important, but when I think about it they all stem often around your manipulation of waves.

In the laning phase it often leads to: better trades, better cs and turret/gank pressure.

In the mid game it allows you to: Roam to other lanes, pressure objectives, and get good vision.

In the late game it puts pressure on objectives and leads to harder decisions for the enemy team as far as grouping to fight you and allows for better vision.

I may be off here and that is why I am posting this to see what you all think of this and get suggestions. I am only a middling silver player this year after being bronze the last few seasons. So I will be fine with any correction or suggestions you may have.

My personal goal is that I am trying to learning the nuances of wave manipulation in the early game the most. I feel like I could be getter larger cs leads in the laning phase if I just used the push and pull of the waves better.

8 Comments

HalcyonDweller8/30/2018, 5:19:56 PM3 votes

You got it dude/dudette. Congrats on discovering wave control, when I learned about it it opened up a whole new way to play and gave me means to win games even against opponents who could out-play me mechanically in-lane.

Alzon8/30/2018, 6:23:02 PM2 votes

When someone asks for help learning wave management, I usually see people recommend looking up SoloRenektonOnly’s wave management series on YouTube that he made some years back. It’s how I learned. Controlling the minion wave can yield a huge gold lead and is a vital skill if you want to climb. Even junglers and supports should learn this.

Popperofski8/31/2018, 8:27:09 AM2 votes

watch solorenektononly for wave management

TeCoolMage8/30/2018, 5:35:21 PM1 votes

I think objectives and vision are more important than wave control - bad wave control puts strain on your team and can make it hard to group if someone else needs to go to a lane you bounced by accident for example, but bad vision or objective control loses you the game outright because you outright need vision to know what objective to do, and you need to kill towers to kill the nexus which is the point of the game

You can have perfect wave management to get a big wave later or force people to meet a lane but if you get all the farm in the world or win all the 4v5s you still need to know your objectives