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Duo Midlane

Ericaeris··2 votes·316 views

Hello everyone!

I've been playing this game for a couple years as a Support main almost exclusively. Some of my favorite characters to play are enchanters, but they sometimes feel quite stale and boring, as you can be at times a glorified heal bot. Most games it feels like you are sitting back just.. watching your ADC while you flip on your phone and wait for lane phase to be over. So what could make the gameplay of a support more engaging, impactful and meaningful?

Well, the solution to me seems so simple! Why not just run the duo lane on mid lane instead of bot lane?

Heres some pros to consider:

  • Close to all map objectives (Rift Herald & Dragon)

  • Better ability to gank other lanes in down time (Even aiding the jungler instead of just solo ganking could result in more success)

  • Able to aid the jungler if their jungle is invaded from any part of the map, vice versa.

  • Shorter travel time for minions in mid lane means the duo lane will not be as far behind in experience from the other lanes.

I'd love to get some feedback as to the pros and cons of this idea.

9 Comments

The Leo Cat2 votes

Most people who comment probably won't give you a good reason why this doesn't happen all that much. And it's less to do with them just saying that only 'noobs' will think that. And more to do with they probably don't know the actual reason.

Because Midlane is the shortest path, minions and champions will travel down this lane the quickest. This means that Midlane offers the largest source of both income and experience in the game. Midlane is where all the snowbally champions tend to go. This means champions who scale greatly on both levels and gold.

The reason why ADCs do not go here, is they often scale more with items than levels. And most ADCs in this game do not give you the full benefit of their AD, but instead only a percentage of the total AD their items give.

Unlike most ADCs. Midlane characters offers both power and utility. High damage, rediculous ability rotations that will probably melt someone's face off, and some amount of utility like a stun, root, or a global ult.

The second reason is due to Mid's position, it becomes significantly easier for a very powerful character to rotate to another lane, or assist the jungler when they have been discovered in the enemy Jungle.

This behavior actually predates League, and goes back to Dota 1.

Where things tend to differ more though, is that in Dota it's not uncommon to have 2 people in both top and bottom. Or just 1 person in each lane. Or 2 in one, and 1 in the rest. And yes... it is a 5v5 game still. This is because there's only one objective monster. And he's a god damn bitch to take at higher levels, and impossible at lower levels.

League became more standardized to having two people in bot at all times. Because it gives both teams the ability to contest dragon with three (four if the jungler is alive) players.

DJMason881 votes

I was going to comment this, +1.

Ericaeris1 votes

I am unsure if I completely agree with this. Would not mage-like characters who have high damage and utility be better suited to go to bottom lane, as regardless of their items they will have good utility abilities, and instead ADCs to go mid, as they often purely focus on their items in order to be relevant in the game, and thus benefit from the gold more?

And not to mention there would not be one person going to help your jungler who is being counter jungled, but potentially two people, and earning more gold for more people?

The Leo Cat1 votes

Not exactly. Again, this goes to the problem that the mage is dependent on both levels and items. Pushing the snow bally champion onto one of the sidelines would be less than optimal. Next time you play a game, pay close attention to the level differences between mid and the two side lines. And you will see that it's progressively growing further and further.

While the ADC is a pretty critical role in a team fight, they don't actually scale very well from their levels at all. Like... there's hardly a stat difference in most cases.

As for Midlane helping the Jungler... this is where things get a little more difficult to explain. When you have multiple people in the same lane, you share the experience you would gain from the minions with other people who are nearby. Depending on the ability of the Jungler, he'd be able to slay you because you weren't able to make full use of your level advantage over him, and ADCs and Supports aren't very useful on their own.

This would put you very close to the top laner, or a little below. What's worse is that Mid-lane is also by far the EASIEST lane to gank. Most people only see four directions, but it's actually one large oval when you concider what the junglers can actually do. And most of the popular junglers specializes in getting on top of you and blowing you up. Placing an ADC or a Support in this position would basically give free food for the Jungler and the enemy duo.

When it comes to one of those two people moving to try and help the Jungler, you have the problem that both of the enemy duo will simply break away and slaughter the Jungler, and who ever left the lane. Once that is done, you can guarantee they will come back for you.

The next problem is that Pathing in the Jungle is a little rough when there's a group of people in it. You can easily body block one of your team mates and get them killed. Or hit a blast plant and send multiple people into a precarious position.

Ericaeris1 votes

I agree that mid lane is by far the easiest lane to gank, and I can certainly understand that an ADC or Support alone in the lane may fare badly if ganked, but I feel that this is no exception to the mage like characters who frequent mid such as Lux, who does not have a lot of mobility. However wouldn't two people in the lane be more difficult to gank as there are a variety of adc/support characters who have great utility abilities that shine in disengagement situations?

I do think less people in the jungle is definitely better for pathing situations, however most adc/support combos will be two ranged champs, or one ranged and one melee, meaning there would be most likely less body blocking. The blast plant is something to consider but is situational.

Lastly, does the one to two level advantage for mid laners really make or break them? I realize they typically deal more damage according to the level of the ability, but the majority of damage these mages do will be based off of their AP/AD scaling most of the time, right?

Crede7771 votes

Midlane being the shortest path means it's ideal for a solo player to get solo xp and gold income. This means someone will have to go solo bottom which is far more dangerous without the added sustain / cc / vision.

It's easier for the enemy jungler to camp mid because regardless of if he is top or bottom he isn't very far away. This means you exert less pressure as a 2v1 mid.

Finally, dragon control is very important. This is decided by who has the most control bot lane. If they take your bot tower first, or can shove your bot laner in under tower, this grants them a large amount of map control and pressures an important objective.

Ericaeris1 votes

What about Rift Herald as well? If it's captured it has some huge benefits! Wouldn't it be more beneficial to have two people mid to be able to make it a 4 man battle for each of these objectives?

Handy Sandy 1 votes

Why would you sit there just waiting for the lane to end as a supp? Go roam alone or with your jubgler or ward the river and jungle entrances.

Ericaeris1 votes

Of course you can ward! However roaming is exclusively done when mid isn't pushed and isn't always good timing for you to leave the ADC as you can leave them in a dangerous spot to be alone.

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