Just because you have the most kills, doesn't mean that's what you should be doing

The Great Divide·7/3/2018, 9:54:08 PM·26 votes·11,844 views

For instance if you're the jungler. As a mid laner, I love when you gank. I also love when you get me 2 kills ahead.

But please - if the rest of the map needs you - go help them.

If the enemy bot lane is sitting under our tower poking our bot lane... and you never gank them to help me gank and get kills on a lane matchup I already win (stealing the kills as well), that isn't helping us win the game.

So congrats you got 8 kills, and yes this is a salt rant. But I'm tired of when people (this is mostly junglers by nature of their role), just sit and gank one lane over and over without helping anyone else.

(And yes, I did try to help bot lane. But I'm Anivia - I suck at roaming. I pulled off 2 roams still which was more than our jungler even did).

41 Comments

Tahminatrix 7/3/2018, 10:03:03 PM12 votes

There are also the instances when you know the enemy botlane can 2v3, especially when the jungler is reliant on the strength of their teammates like Skarner or Amumu ...a weak jungler needs strong laners to set up for and vice versa.

BigFBear7/4/2018, 1:33:34 AM6 votes

There is an unwritten rule for jungle: never gank a losing lane.

Sometimes you should gank the losing lane. But most of the games it's better to help the winning lanes so they can carry even better.

Naymliss7/4/2018, 2:44:48 AM5 votes

Blitzcrank : Lul noob ADC can't do damage- 13/13/0 Draven ....... - 0/0/13

Automated Riven7/4/2018, 3:00:15 AM4 votes

Your first statement is right. However your rant in the actual post is not. Snowballing a fed lane is way better then camping a ñosing one.

Need Gold 4 Tent7/4/2018, 1:21:50 AM3 votes

That's the wrong mindset for solo queue, especially low elo if you're looking to climb. There was a vid where high ranked players were giving tips on certain things they did - one of which was "Playing around the winning lane". It's sometimes wiser to sacrifice the losing lane and getting the already winning lane further ahead and maintaining that lead.

Here's the part where he says it, I thought it made quite good sense actually.

https://youtu.be/RZwZJ9wVeCA?t=396

Z3Sleeper7/4/2018, 9:29:40 AM3 votes

It actually really is though. Counterargument time.

From the jungler viewpoint, the lane that is winning is the easiest lane to gank, given the inherent laner advantage and more-than-likely allied vision control of the area alongside lack of enemy vision.

The bot lane, especially when pushed to tower, is by far the hardest lane to gank, given that you have 2 laners each with their own trinket wards and later a person literally dedicated to warding. The bot with the advantage will have ward coverage while yours won't, meaning that both you will be spotted coming in and you won't know if the enemy jungler is around or not cuz you have no ward coverage bot. Not to mention that usually the winning bot lane will be winning poke trades making ganking for your bot lane even harder since they'll have less starting health for the gank. Most of the time ganking this lane without flash is damn near impossible.

This holds true for top lane as well. Top lane matchups are usually heavily skewed the moment either side takes a lead. This means that ganking for a winning top lane is extremely easy while ganking for a losing one is extremely difficult.

To top things off you don't stand to gain all that much from shutting down a kill lead vs what you stand to lose. If it goes well despite the disadvantage, you are only putting that lane at a net neutral state. If it goes poorly, you just made the lane unwinnable. Alternatively, if you gank a winning lane, it becomes unwinnable for the enemy. It's easier, far less risky and doesn't end in the possibility of making the lane unwinnable if it somehow goes poorly.

All-in-all, there's a reason most junglers typically stay away from losing lanes--there's just too much risk with too little potential gain while simply ganking a winning lane is basically risk-free and gets your team some risk-free extra lead somewhere.

I don't believe there is anyone who doesn't want to help that losing lane reach net neutral or even convert them to winning, but doing so is very risky. This is why junglers just gank winning lanes almost exclusively. Noone cares if you continuously get kills on a winning lane, but the moment you fail a gank on a losing lane you're setting yourself up for endless unreasonable flame.

MillForMe7/4/2018, 8:11:58 PM2 votes

If the lane your helping isn't taking the tower, what are you both doing? If you're ahead and not securing objectives, what are you doing? You could be 10/0/0, but if you're not somehow trying to ensure that we get Drag, Herald, First tower, ANY tower, or inhibs, then what are you doing overall aside from giving the opponent more time to catch up?

And frankly, I think everyone should be keeping an eye on how all the towers are fairing before the tower bonus is taken, because one gank or one badly timed back can net your opponent WAY too much gold and cause an item spike you can't deal with for various potential reasons.

This is what I'd complain about, specifically.

Coyote Laughing7/4/2018, 12:50:08 AM2 votes

I seen some matches where one team has a distinct lead in kills, mostly on one person, and then that person proceeds to throw so hard that I was left starstruck on why. The reason? Wanting to pad their stats and not focus on actual objectives.

koshkyra7/4/2018, 12:55:43 AM2 votes

I love when the enemy botlane is pushed up at our tower w/ no sums and our gank goes to toplane because "i was on the other side of the map stfu."

Like, who's fault is it that you aren't watching the map and don't realize "oh, i should go botside, there are two free kills there"???

Anatera7/4/2018, 1:17:18 AM2 votes

No it doesn't, but given the direction Riot is taking the game, it might soon be.

Wild Geese7/4/2018, 1:38:16 AM2 votes

One thing I'm learning as I attempt to climb, is there's two ways to play League, in 2d or 4d.

SammyDayspring7/4/2018, 6:05:48 PM2 votes

The biggest problem I see is not whether one lane is getting ganked too much or another isn't getting ganked enough. It's what players are doing with that lead. In lower ELO, the thought seems to be that fed players should go after more kills. It rarely translates into more objectives. At some point, the gold lead no longer matters, and the other team can come back from a huge deficit.

So go ahead and get one lane fed, but get objectives with that lead instead of chasing for kills to pad your KDA.

Pubbi7/4/2018, 5:20:19 AM1 votes

Here is an excellent example of this: https://youtu.be/aOfAT74x2Ls

Modl Ryden l7/4/2018, 5:44:47 AM1 votes

Yup always be going for objectives. Otherwise you do a 'win lane lose game' meme.

Pika Fox7/3/2018, 10:58:32 PM1 votes

It really depends... If bot is doing bad getting poked under tower and is CS down and kills down and 1/2 HP.... Im probably not going to go there, or at least not all in and just show for mild pressure if i need to.

Silly Neeko7/3/2018, 10:20:54 PM1 votes

Very much agreed. Though its funny because ill bait the enemy jungler into staying top and ganking me when i play top, whats even better is when i play Shen and draw them and the mid laner top and then i just ulti down to bott lane xD

Dealth7/4/2018, 7:17:13 PM1 votes

next time I jungle i'll be sure to die a few times to make my other laners feel better about themselves

Add927/4/2018, 7:37:40 PM1 votes

As a main jungler , pathing is everything, and I go wherever it makes sense for me to go depending on my camps respawn time , lanes being pushed or not

In low elo though , I'll honestly take every kill I can because I don't trust my teammates to carry or to even just FINISH the kill lol .

So many times I've backed off to give the kill to my laner and they miss last skill shot , or cancel AA or whatever and you're like .... Ok mate good shit

MasterDClone7/4/2018, 12:58:57 AM1 votes

If i get fed by camping one lane then il do that because it's easier for me to carry.