Bot lane and my frustrations with this game

Acemaster81·Sep 28, 2019·2 votes·2,720 views

Is it me, or do I really dislike playing bot lane? I'm not gold+ or anything, and I have barely touched competitive, but in bot lane any mistakes what so ever result in either an early kill or being rendered useless for the entire game. In my most recent game as of this post, I think I got discouraged because I, at least for today was adc and I had several games that were full of early level 1-2 ganks or being hit by a hook and instantly dying at level 1-2. I find that I really hate it down there, despite liking to play 2 or 3 champions that play that role.

15 Comments

HarrowïngSep 28, 20192 votes

sad to say but that exists in every lane. the game is so damage focused that if you die early you are going to keep dying throughout the game. Games are over within 10min because a single kill will net such an advantage over you that your team will tilt into giving up.

Acemaster81Sep 28, 20191 votes

That's most of my games. There has been countless times where even if I'm not adc or support people will give up because of an early kill in bot lane, or a early 3-5 man gank in the jungle or other lane. Those strategies are making the early game really frustrating.

InsaneWindSep 28, 20191 votes

Acemaster81 If you like i can get into a discord call with you and explain a bit of the dynamic for bot lane and how to deal with it in your matches. I can go over how to avoid these things and proper lane match ups for certain champs, you said there are roughly 3 champs in bot lane that you enjoy playing. let me know what they are and i'll see if i can tell you how to deal with the punishing way bot lane can be.

Feel free to add me on Discord Wind#2401

I am currently Gold 4 for my rank, working on climbing my way into higher tiers.

Acemaster81Sep 28, 20191 votes

They are KogMaw Ashe Sivir for adc.

Zilean Soraka Anivia as support.

Oh and I sent the friend request on discord.

SosGrohiikSep 28, 20191 votes

Pick up Kai-sai or Jihn. The bot lane is super damage focused and while Sivir and Kog have great late game scaling if your struggling with the early game you should take some time to find an agressive champion that supports your current playstyle. You will learn from minor victorys with these champs that should help you with other characters. Picking up jihn helped me with kiting which is a huge part of playing leauge you never want to stand still even as sivir or kog. As for being pulled you got to remember that champions who pull will spend every second thinking of how they can get you the squishy adc in their hands so they can feed their adc. Just constantly remember that the blitzcrank wants to run around the minions and grab you so you should take this time to either engage with his ADC and get the advantage as hes only one person who can stun one person or you should look to get out of the area and wait under the tower.

RekSai CoffeeCoSep 28, 20191 votes

Pick ARAM then watch as your bot lane worries are no more.

SylaelqueSep 29, 20191 votes

In bot lane you will either get bad support or bad adc so very unreliable for soloque because you can't even show your skills when the lane becomes 1v2 without single help of jungle.

FioraWillCarrySep 29, 20191 votes

Top lane is like that too. Lane is decided by whoever gets the first kill. After that, might as well be playing 4v5.

Acemaster81Sep 29, 20191 votes

I guess I find other lanes more favorable due to less to pay attention to.

FioraWillCarrySep 29, 20191 votes

Not necessarily. I've found success by playing Top lane a little differently than your garden variety SoloQ feeder. I don't play to win lane. I play to not lose lane. Playing to win lane is why all these trash cans in SoloQ feed out of control. They always wanna get fed and be the hero and they do stupid shit because of it. There are lanes where you simply cannot win out right no matter what you do. You gotta hang back and let your team carry you in those tough match-ups. Don't make it harder for them to carry by forcing shit where you shouldn't and feeding out the ass. You can most likely apply this philosophy to the bot lane as well.

Acemaster81Sep 29, 20191 votes

Then how do I even get that philosophy? And how do I not feel so bad when I perform poorly?

FioraWillCarrySep 29, 20191 votes

Learn to slow push and farm under tower. Train your body to feel pain every time you go past the middle of the lane and you can't see the river.

The thigh guySep 29, 20191 votes

{quoted}

Top lane is like that too. Lane is decided by whoever gets the first kill. After that, might as well be playing 4v5.

Happens in mid and jungle as well. First kills basically decide the entire game.

FioraWillCarrySep 29, 20191 votes

It rarely decides mid because firstly, mid tends to be about who pulls of the better roams. Think, Annie vs Zed. Doesn't matter if Zed gets a kill on Annie if Annie roams bot and gets a double kill. Hell, even better if her AD Carry gets a double because of her roam. It's basically gg after that.

Secondly. Mid lane match-ups are far less interactive due to many of these match-ups being ranged vs ranged. You see the main reason why the 1st kill decides top lane is because many of the top lane match-ups are melee vs melee. This means that whoever gets even the slightest lead can zone his opponent off the wave and deny him xp. He can freeze easily to setup ganks. He can shove to maintain lane priority which allows him to roam/teleport/invade. Without the ability to safely contest waves, you basically lose control of the lane. In a mage vs mage match-up, everyone is ranged. You can kill a Ziggs 4 times, he will still be able to shove you in and poke you out whenever he wants. The Ziggs can no longer out-right hard win the lane but he can still control it as much as he wants which, I would argue, is more important.

Now while Bot lane is more or less ranged into ranged, it operates more similarly to top lane simply because you have no control over what your random SoloQ duo does. If you get killed as the AD Carry in bot lane, you can still control the lane due to being ranged. However, 9 times out of 10, your dumbshit SoloQ support won't understand item advantages and try to force shit repeatedly and pretty soon your entire bot lane has fed all to fuck. This also applies if you're the support playing with a random dumbshit SoloQ AD carry. This is the primary reason I will never main a bot lane role. It frustrates me to see random baddies in SoloQ forcing fights on the enemy when he has a item 1055 to the enemy's item 1038 .

As for the jungle. Well, it's a little different. The first kill can decide the jungle but for a different reason. It has to do with tempo. You lose tempo as a jungler if you're the first one to die. You will fall behind in camps which means you fall behind in Gold and XP. This subsequently means that you have to spend more time farming which is doubly difficult if you get your camps stolen while you're dead. Now while you're farming the meager offerings in the jungle, the enemy jungler is ganking and getting shit done. Now you can try to match this, but you will be doing this less effectively. His ganks at level 6 will be way more devastating than your ganks at level 4. And good luck if he runs into you trying to sneak dragon while he is 3 levels above you. This is the kinda shit that happens when you fall behind as a jungler.