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What exactly is roaming, when to do it, and tips? (Mainly as Ahri)

Jolteyuko··2 votes·1,456 views

I have recently started to play this game and I am having a lot of fun! Especially playing the champion, Ahri. So far, I feel like I have a good grasp as far as how her abilities work, and how to build her. But there is a few game mechanics that I'm not exactly familiar with on how they work, or what to do. One of the main things is roaming. From across my lower level games (Level 10 in-game currently) I have ran into a couple players smurfing, and they were all helpful for the most part. One of them told me that I should be roaming, and he told me it was difficult to explain when I asked. As I understand it looking online, it is moving from mid to other lanes to farm up gold and xp at the fastest possible rates, is this true? If so, when should I leave mid to farm gold and exp? I tried it twice. One time I got ganked (Which is 100% my fault for not knowing where the enemy jungler was when I went to move to bot) and the other time I was told to stop since I was taking farm from another lane. So, when/how should I be roaming? Am I understanding it wrong? Or am I correct? I really don't know. I've spent a decent amount of time searching this subject before I decided to come to the forums and ask, since it seemed the answer I was receiving was a little unclear. And also, if anyone out there has any tips for me as a newer player that would be awesome! I have looked into general build guides for champions that look fun, and I have fun playing, as well as their matchups and how to build against poor matchups for the champions I do enjoy playing. When it comes to Ahri, the main hero that I play, when I all-in someone I normally go Ult->Charm->Orb of deception->Fox fire->Attack->Ult again, then use the last charge to get out of need be, or finish them off. Is this the correct order? This game is a lot of fun, and I want to be the best that I can at it. Thanks in advance!

19 Comments

Wife In Lantern2 votes

Hello,

You are very right, roaming is probably one of the most important things to do as a midlaner like ahri, all midlaners should be looking to roam at some point in the game Here's my criteria in terms of when to roam

#1 Is the enemy laner roaming? Personally, i hate it when the enemy akali or diana roams bot lane when im playing adc and all my midlaner does is give a question mark ping, half the time it isn't even helpful because the ping happens AFTER the enemy midlaner shows up in your lane. IF you see the enemy laner roaming or out of action for more than 10 seconds, you need to immediately ping danger signs onto the lane you think they're roaming to, your next objective is to judge whether or not you have time to push the lane in. (By push the lane in i mean kill all enemy minions and get your minion wave under the turret) If you see that the enemy laners are low and you will most likely gain something out of a counter roam, you should aim to make your way down to the lane they are going so you don't fall behind due to enemy roams. If the enemy laners are all full health with plenty of cc, the chances of your roam being impactful are reduced significantly, so you should look to make the enemy laner miss out on as much farm and exp as possible by resetting the wave and taking enemy jungle if possible.

#2 Is the lane im roaming to going to benefit from this roam? Much like a jungler's thinking, roaming needs carefully planning prior to execution. for example, if you see that your bot lane is a snowballing lane that needs a lead in order get rolling (specific game knowledge needs to be known here, i think draven thresh lane) Then you should roam 100% If you see that the lane your roaming to is more of a passive farming lane (twitch soraka vs ezreal karma) without many opportunities and benefits then you should probably stay in your own lane.

#3 Is my champion fit for roaming? With ahri, she's probably one of the strongest roaming champions in the game. Her insane mobility allows her to gap close efficently, she has a charm allowing for possible cc chains and she has enough damage to kill without taking too much damage. So yes, you should try to roam as much as possible with ahri However, there are champions that can't roam as easily as say ahri for example (Xerath, Veigar, Yasuo, Viktor) off the top of my head. I'm not saying that these champions SHOULDN'T roam, but they will have a harder time getting rewards out of a roam.

In terms of champion and game knowledge, they come naturally from experience, the more you play the champion, the better you understand the limits of what you are capable of doing. Good luck! :) [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Jolteyuko1 votes

Thanks a lot! This was really informative. =D So in short, slow to start bot lane setup I should just let them farm, and roam top more. Faster startups I should always roam, and go bot more than top. Always keep and eye on where enemy Jungler is if possible, the current enemy at mid if possible, and where enemies are on the map for if it is worth it to go roam or not. There is still a lot of champions I haven't even seen yet. And others I see all the time. (Like Ramuses I think? werewolf dog thing with an axe) I see almost every match. Jax seems to be very common as well. When roaming to get more xp/gold, make sure to not steal too much form the ADC, but get enough kills that I can get items/levels as early as possible. This skill will come more as time goes on as I learn the game better, but I should start trying to work on it now. That's how I understand this anyways, seems like a lot of info to take in at once, but a game as diverse in how things play out, that's awesome! I love that haha. Thanks for the input!

Jolteyuko1 votes

Oh, one more thing. If I don't know where the enemy midlaner could be roaming at all, what ping should I give? A danger in both lanes, or an MIA for my lane?

Nasuuna1 votes

{quoted}

Oh, one more thing. If I don't know where the enemy midlaner could be roaming at all, what ping should I give? A danger in both lanes, or an MIA for my lane?

ping mia so when they die anyways you can just say you pinged it

im like 17-2 my last several ahri games

going morellos > Gunblade > Void/lich bane

[sg-ahri-2]

Jolteyuko1 votes

Okay. I normally build in this order: Morellonomicon Rabadon's Void Staff Then Sorc shoes and last slot depends. I know item build tend to shift and sway depending on matchups (Which I do still need to learn) but as a whole in general, is this wrong or correct?

Nasuuna1 votes

{quoted}

Okay. I normally build in this order: Morellonomicon Rabadon's Void Staff Then Sorc shoes and last slot depends. I know item build tend to shift and sway depending on matchups (Which I do still need to learn) but as a whole in general, is this wrong or correct?

rabadons is % amp on your existing items, you are barely getting any use out of it with just morellos

theres 5-6 ways to build ahri but the most common are

Dorans Ring start almost always, dark seal+refillable/3 pots works as well first back boots+seal/forgotten idol/what you can afford

Proto belt Lich Bane - This snowballs really hard but scales poorly and lacks mana

Morellos Ludens - best for wave clear and being just consistent with your output

Morellos Lich Bane - Considered by the ahri discord/reddit to be the best overall build due to naturally weaving autos into her kit

Morellos Gunblade - Quickest burst combo while being more consistent then protobelt

Gunblade Lich Bane - This one is pretty much gone since the gunblade nerfs, but it works the same and more consistently than belt, but is 900g more

Hourglass/Banshee's Morellos - pretty straight forward start against things like zed/talon or a syndra that got ahead

Void Staff is usually 3rd in all these builds then deathcap

Edit: you aren't an ADC, you can tailor your build to the game

triple MR builders early? Sorc+forgotten idol+liandrys

your entire team snowballing hard? max your e 2nd for more picks

are you snowballing hard? upgrade your dark seal

Jolteyuko1 votes

Okay, so save Rabadon's for later on in the game. So then Dorian's at start (Which I left out, I normally go Dorian's and two HP pots) then build into other items, saving Rabadon's for later on. I'll learn items more as time goes on, items, and the best ones to buy are confusing at the early stage of learning the game that I'm at.

Nasuuna1 votes

{quoted}

Okay, so save Rabadon's for later on in the game. So then Dorian's at start (Which I left out, I normally go Dorian's and two HP pots) then build into other items, saving Rabadon's for later on. I'll learn items more as time goes on, items, and the best ones to buy are confusing at the early stage of learning the game that I'm at.

of champions to learn on Ahri is one of the best

I personally learned on akali and ziggs, and somehow now im an adc main

Ahri + her midnight skin were my first cash purchases though.

Jolteyuko1 votes

Okay, at least I'm learning a champ that is a good one to learn. XD My first (And only) cash purchases so far is Ahri and the arcade skin for her, which is the one that I thought looked the best,

Hammermancer1 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdYAy9d-fjE

Hammermancer1 votes

this guy has a lot of guides that work for every role, watch a spree and you'll get gudder

LitAF1 votes

He probably plagiarized that from someone as well

Jolteyuko1 votes

[{quoted}](name=T3H UB3RN07,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=rEOhEpFQ,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2017-10-27T21:03:50.145+0000)

this guy has a lot of guides that work for every role, watch a spree and you'll get gudder

I watched the video a couple times and I think I understand better. It seems it will take more time for me to have a better game sense before I can actually grasp this concept, but that's okay! Thanks!

Niyume1 votes

Roaming is when, during laning phase, you leave mid and go top or bot and act like the jungler and gank or push a tower, basically.

Jolteyuko1 votes

Thanks! I'll be thinking of this in my future games. In my early stage games it was just stick to mid and still won because of her insane burst it was fine, playing against players worse than myself. Recently I've been matched up against stronger opponents, so I need to learn how to better myself this way. Thanks!

Nasuuna1 votes

oh a big thing that a lot of ahris don't do

you can flash charm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYMmENmDJZc

hit your e then immediately flash

Jolteyuko1 votes

Ohhhh that's nifty. Use the E first then flash. This way it goes off the instant I flash, giving them no time at all to react. That looks really awesome to get used to!

Nasuuna1 votes

feel free to add me, or my smurf Enhavri

Enhavri is basically an ahri 1 trick account that im still leveling, I can show you a few tricks

Jolteyuko1 votes

Okay, sure thing! The only two champions I have dipped my hands into is Ahri and Twisted Fate. Both of which I find fun, but Ahri more so of the two. =D

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