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The Rise of Level 4 Ganks on Botlane

BlueBilberry··5 votes·2,691 views

Over the last patch, I was struck by something curious. One thing I've noticed as a recent trend from both my own games and watching a variety of support and adc streamers from plat to master tier is the rise of the question: "How can he be level 6 already?" And, I have seen this consistently. By the time the botlaners are about level 4, they can expect ganks from players that are already two levels ahead of them. (And yes, I use level 6 here - but I have seen some level 7 gankers too.)

And, this seems to be a consistent thing. As for why it is happening though...well, I am not entirely sure.

If you check the stats from op.gg, champion.gg, leagueofgraphs and lolalytics, you can see that the winrates for both adcs and supports have both diminished generally - plus the meta champs are now narrower and more grouped together by winrate. And on the other hand, the winrates for the top, mid and jungle have moved above both the supports and the adcs.

Could it have been the result of the mana and minion changes? Or is there something else at play?

8 Comments

Metal Janna3 votes

Ahhh, so this is what jungle mains mean when they say "i'm always behind the laners!". They mean "i'm always behind the solo laners".

Even though they get to have buffs and the element of surprise to compensate.

Here's an idea: maybe, just maybe, you can gank without out-leveling the laners! Or gank bot for a kill to get your snowball going! Sheesh, it's like y'all are scared to gank if you don't outclass the champion you're ganking by yourself.

There is no balanced game state where a guy who safely farms jungle monsters should have more xp than the guy who spent the entire game exposed to his lane opponent.

BlueBilberry1 votes

You raise what I see as some valid points. And I think you are thinking along the same lines as some of the Riot devs.

In theory, the buffs are supposed to be the compensation needed for the junglers to be able to carry out the successful ganks. Note the words used here: in theory. Whether the buffs are enough in practice, and can compensate for bad decisions by the ganker or "tells" by the laner, well that's quite another matter.

Ganks are supposed to work via a numbers game, 3 vs 2 or 2 vs 1 should work in favour of the side which has the greatest number -- especially when you consider that the element of surprise has been tilted in favour of the more numerous side (due to warding items not being given generally til about the 11 minute mark - give or take 2 minutes).

Now whether the changes in jungle will be significant enough to counter the problems where the jungler is able to get more xp, well I wonder about that. The scuttle crab changes for example might result in more desperation ganking by the jungler that falls behind his opposing player.

iPooUnicorns2 votes

This is how it's supposed to be, since two players are sharing 1 lane's worth of exp, they end up behind in levels until mid game.

BlueBilberry1 votes

Curiously, as a support (and top) main, I have nothing wrong with this in principle. As for how it is supposed to be, well that's relative. Over the history of the game, it has not been that way through a whole season - with some noted exceptions where the balance staff made some miscalculations (e.g., the League of Cleaver meta). However, I am starting to suspect that maybe the current balance experiment has maybe gone off the rails once more somehow.

The level differences between the lanes are getting to the point that the catching up in levels as you suggest will be probably not happening until much later in the game, as opposed to midgame (if the losers in the botlane can stay off the dinner plate long enough). And that perhaps is a step too far - no one likes playing a role where they don't feel very relevant (ask anyone who is autofilled support). Now, if one goes back to about December, the difference was akin to roughly a half to one level difference with smart play in a balanced botlane. Now, we could be approaching the point where we are looking at ganks from the other lanes where there could be a 2 level advantage - even when one factors in kills (or lack thereof) in other lanes. It is no longer just a case of high damage on squishy targets here - it is also a case of very easy pickings due to the level differences.

4permas 1smurf1 votes

Yeah the game is finally not dictated by uninteractive supports and rightclickers!!

And the SOLO lanes and JUNGLE dictate the course of the game as it is supposed to be.

nm10103 votes

Mid and jungle have always dictated the course of the game, the problem was that 99% of the time it was through bot lane that they did it.

BlueBilberry1 votes

It seems to be that the recent changes have exaggerated the effect a bit more though.

BlueBilberry1 votes

Sadly, we do forget sometimes that it is a team game.

Remember this - if players get dissuaded from playing (and maining) adc and support, then suddenly the vengeance of autofill, which was muted not too long ago, could suddenly rear its ugly head once more.

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