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Should I always 'follow my lane'?

Father Stretch·7/28/2017, 12:10:48 AM·7 votes·1,903 views

My main role is mid, and I one trick Viktor . I wouldn't say I'm good at the game, nor at this champion, but as far as my understandings the nature of Viktor are as follows:

--scales heavily on gold/Xp, more so than any other mid lane champ --lacks mobility --very weak early game --insane wave clear --decent mid/late game

These factors decided that my play style with viktor is farm heavy. If my opponents leaves the lane and starts roaming I would just ping mia several times then shove the lane as hard as i can, and go for the raptors. When the enemy returns, even if with a kill or two that he collected during the roam, I'm still ahead of him in gold and xp. I've had countless success with this kind of play style -- even if i'm 0/0/0 i'm still able give the enemy team more pressure than my teammate does past the 20 min mark.

However, often times, my team will be extremely tilted when they found that enemy ahri/lb/tf is roaming around killing people while all this Viktor does is shoving mid lane. I totally understands their rage, because apparently I'm making less map pressure than the opponent does. Even if I know exactly where the opponent is heading, most of the times I would just warn my team; because referring back to what i listed earlier, viktor isn't able to contribute as much early game in 2v2, 3v3 encounters comparing to high burst and mobility champs like Ahri and Leblanc . I don't see why should i follow them, if I know they are designed to be stronger early game.

I often receive flame from my team when they lost an encounter because I'm not there. For example, Im laning with TF. After we hit 6, a 2v1 scenario occurred top lane, TF teleported as soon as he saw his top lane Darius being ganked. Then, our top/jg both died. They started raging at me for not coming, and that if i came we will be able to kill both Darius and TF. I told them i pinged several times, and most likely, I will be told "Don't just ping, follow your lane".

Why i chose not to press ghost and run top as fast as I can, win an outnumbered 3v2 fight for my team? Because I have three major concerns:

-- Im not sure if enemy jg is nearby --will it bring me more benefit, if i went top for an unsure kills rather than deep pushing the lane and make TF lose a wave or two? --Enemy team aren't idiots, they only fought the encounter because they recognize its a 2v2. If i came, it will turn into a 2v3 for them. will they still stay for an outnumbered fight?

All these are only my personal understandings of the game, I think that we should play to a champion's strength. However, as I climb higher on the ladder, the people I'm paling with are becoming better and more efficient; Im facing this dilemma of should I roam and making more presence on the map rather than keeping my current play style? If so, under what circumstances should I roam and coordinate with my team? A few advice from the more experienced players will be appreciated!

23 Comments

Sun Wu Ryuumoku7/28/2017, 3:17:52 PM3 votes

It depend, but :

  • keep push ur lane, when he roam
  • then follow him
  • don't follow him if he's an assassin (or jng is) when u have no vision on him

Just mute if ur mate are toxic

ChompyWulf7/28/2017, 12:48:01 AM2 votes

Well, if teammates are salty you didn't follow TFs ult, they clearly aren't thinking. At the same time, I hope TF didn't ult within sight of you where your W stun could prevent his teleport.

If you lane enemy roams, and you push lane up, are you just falling back to get raptors and not damaging turret? That's kinda dumb if so. If you push lane, put as much hurt on that abandoned tower as possible.

Fun info, one Vik Q cast on a minion lets you hit a tower with 3 empowered autos. With a Sheen or Lich Bane, you can hurt towers a LOT.

Finally, just because Viktor lacks an instant CC or hard burst early doesn't mean he can't be a terror in teamfights. Clever use of W, E, and R can put a lot of damage on a cluster of enemies in a hurry. You may not delete one guy fast, but if you chunk a couple and slow/stun them, it can be a much bigger impact. Don't be afraid to roam. Viktors zone control is pretty solid.

JavelinJoe7/28/2017, 12:21:07 AM2 votes

Well, maybe one tricking a champion who you are not good with, with poor game knowledge, may be the bigger issue. I would recommend learning a few solid champions and get a general game knowledge first before you look to one-trick any champion. As per "follow you lane", It helps to do so, a lot sometimes. Also knowing when to shove and when to follow is important too. I am in no way a mid lane player, but generally I would say look to match the lane. Meaning if they roam and get 2 kills, then you should look to match that gold. Farming is not always the best solution though and you should look to roam somewhat as any champion (except maybe Karthus) when playing mid in general because kills are always worth the 2 - 3 waves of CS you may miss. Kills in other lanes not only puts you a kill ahead of your lane opponent, but it also contributes to the other lane's chance of success in beating their own opponents.

However, if you are behind, defiantly ward up and farm it out. If you are way ahead though, roaming is seen by many players as almost a requirement.

Evil Yasuo7/28/2017, 12:56:08 AM1 votes

No, shove your lane first. Only follow if you can make something happen.

9Wly9oMl027/28/2017, 2:17:10 AM1 votes

No.

Jinzo Torrance7/28/2017, 2:36:14 AM1 votes

Wait, no no no. If somebody pings you because a TF ulted in their lane and you didn't "follow" (and how could you follow him?), they're trash and you should /fullmute him. TF revolves around his ultimate and ganking a lane instantly while he's mid, there's no way for you to follow him other picking TP or just denying his ultimate by using yours on him (only really bad TF ult where they can be stopped though).

Viktor's is good in skirmishes where he also has allied CC to land his E detonation or Ultimate ticks, so it's not too bad in a 2v2 or 3v3 scenario if his teammates have some CC.

You should buy a control and put it either at the bush behind your Red or in the one in the middle of the river depending on which team you are on, so you have a more clear map should you ever follow a roam (won't facecheck in an ambush), also if you know that your roam would be too late to be meaningful and you feel safe from their jungler you should attack the enemy mid tower or try to roam in the other sidelane and push to their tower.

Generally if you warn them that a champion like LB is missing your Bot should realize that they should back off, ward their bushes and play safe for a bit, ping them literally the Danger (the red ! ) near them to make them understand that will die if they don't react.

EDIT: Also I saw you always go TLD and build Rylais.

-If you think you won't win lane, like against Orianna, use DFT.

-Rylais is not that good of an item anymore, only build him against a team of immobile champions, like Syndra, Darius, Mundo, Skarner, people you want to kite and have no dash to make your Rylais useless.

Tails90167/28/2017, 5:09:31 AM1 votes

If I ping 6 times that fizz is gone, I expect that my team falls back to turret. Since you know, he snowballs off 2-3 kills.

I'm not gonna follow him, as he could be waiting in a bush trying to bait me

Dream High7/28/2017, 6:46:01 AM1 votes

If you play viktor they shoukd be under tower missing farm. If they decide ti raom they lose a few more waves and damage to the tower.

If you're ahead shove then follow. If behind do the above and catch up.

hi ìm groot7/28/2017, 12:06:32 PM1 votes

In a heavy roam matchup like TF, you want to rush the hextech E upgrade and most likely bring TP. Unless bad things happen you want to have that item completed and be in lane by the time he hits 6, and then just try to outpush him. If he ults while you're still pushing him in, and the wave crashes into his tower you're faced with a judgement call that there's no right answer to, just gotta be experienced. One thing though, do NOT do raptors, plz plz plz do NOT do raptors lol. You can either continue to damage to turret, and I saw one guy say something about Q because he was confused by the fact the empowered auto animation goes off on turrets, but the damage does not. But you do want to be on that turret if you CANNOT follow. But to clarify, a situation where you cannot follow, does not simply mean you cant kill the enemy, if the fight they had during your laners roam was even remotely close, you should follow after having your wave be headed into their turret. If nothing else you want to be able to push the wave off the the turret and get the gold your team would otherwise have lost. A situation you CANNOT follow into, is if they got a decisive gank off from the roam on the lane, and the enemy is still healthy enough that if u show at turret they will dive you, in that situation stay mid and push more and more waves and get more damage on tower, mid lane tower is actually worth more than top and bottom not gold wise of course, im speaking strategically.

Keep in mind while viktor is not a roaming champion, higher level mid laners will be able to win the game around you with better macro if you arent playing the map, this includes being faster to respond to your junglers movements as well as your other laners.

TequilaZombie7/28/2017, 12:50:15 PM1 votes

I have no meaningful input to give (besides that if you know that the enemy mid laner could possibly turn around and kill you, you should just keep farming and pinging). I just wanted to tell you that THIS is the kind of posts that this section should be all about.

Seriously, thank you for bringing some useful discussion to these boards!

AlienPrimate7/28/2017, 12:35:38 AM1 votes

I actually hate it when people follow roams unless they can do it within about 5 seconds of the roam. Most of the time, following will just result in you dying too if the roam was successful. Stay mid and get some damage on the tower unless you catch it early enough to get there at roughly the same time. Just pinging a few times when you know where they are going should be enough. If your team still dies then it is their own fault for not responding to your pings.