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a lesson on lane aggression

Hige··2 votes·679 views

Hello guys, this post is so that we can share some knowledge on lane aggression, I'm not the most aggressive laner myself, I think that farming and reacting accordingly is far more important than going nuts to the wall on the enemy team, that said I'm just a gold 5 player and I'm open to the idea that my playstyle can improve.

In the past, lane aggression was a big no for me, but during season 5 and 6 I've learned to welcome it and even enforce it to a certain degree, always taking in account the enemy's numbers of course and the difference in mechanical skills without forgetting to keep most of my focus on last hitting right.

That said, I've had a couple games where things have been shaken up quite a lot thanks to lane aggression, namely I had a Sivir/Nami go apes*** crazy on me and a thresh, she didn't even try to get cs, she'd Q/E to me and all the damage I managed to land on her was mitigated by Nami, Thresh' hook would end up cancelled by her spellshield too and we would either be pushed away or end up dead, I managed to set some kills for my seriously fed nocturne but in the end we lost because I didn't have enough gold and was pretty much a joke damage-wise.

Then comes what I'd state as the worst game of league I've ever played, I had a very VERY aggressive Karma who I tried to keep up with and I was against a cait and a leona, Karma would push like crazy and deal damage to them but... even if I focused Cait, there was a Leona fishing for a stun AND a Jungler Evelynn, we were so far inside the lane that Eve ganked karma and she somehow survived only to start flaming me hard, telling me how I can't CS properly and how I'm not following her aggressions, yet I was behind in 1 CS and had 1 kill above Cait, of course, Karma was a serious toxic player or probably drunk but the point stands...

How much lane aggression should be applied during the early game? Is forsaking CS a good strategy in order to push the enemy away? either way you'll get it right after the enemy isn't there...

Also, dodging skillshots while last hitting can be pretty difficult, I manage to dodge about 80% of them on most of my games but the one that hits is so incredibly rewarding for the crazy aggressive laner that I find it seriously mind boggling, specially since these aggressive laners are so good at dodging my support's efforts for CCing them and I'm so bad at it.

When there's a leona on the enemy team I become the most reserved laner ever, to the point where I don't care what my support is doing, I'm not going in, I'm csing the f out of the lane and that's about it :S am I wrong?

11 Comments

GGXJ92 votes

Should always be looking to punish your opponent but tbh people like sky williams are right just play like a bitch and let the other kids make mistakes. Just capitalize on it not playing scared but playing smart.

Hige1 votes

I don't like that guy that much... but I think playing like a bitch actually leaves room for making a lot of mistakes of your own :/

Pushing the wave will make the other laner loose CS to turret if he doesn't know how to last hit, yes, but will also increase the risk of getting ganked and even getting the top laner in bot through teleport. Of course I'd argue that shoving a lane will tilt the enemy so he'll make a lot more mistakes... but still.

AvaBee1 votes

Hmm this is a really good question that I'd like to hear more about as well. I'd say the most serious considerations you need to make are 1 matchups 2 opponent playstyle 3 lane. I feel like aggression over farm is far more important top and mid lane. Also make sure to communicate your plans for the lane with support and jungler

Hige1 votes

I understand that communication is key, but do you really need to when your pick is Tristana or Vayne for example? shouldn't it be common knowledge that their early game is not as strong as Sivir's or Lucian's or even Ashe's? more importantly, since there's a lot of mage supports nowadays, they don't seem to understand the value of a healer support on the other end and expect you to deal more damage than what you're capable of :/

AvaBee1 votes

Never assume, it'll never work out. Best to just say it. I've almost never been raged at in bot when I make friendly plans with my lanemate and jungler. Very undervalued imo

Hige1 votes

Funny story, I got a support recently who was very talkative and he made all the team kind of agree on not being toxic until minute 20 and that was one of the best games I've had in a while, number-wise. I think that being positive actually reflects on a subconscious level when playing.

Revali1 votes

I'm usually not the aggressor in my fights anyway

Unless i'm playing bard, for whatever reason I wanna fight all day every day.

Hige1 votes

Bard has a surprising burst early game so it's understandable!

Zone of Endless1 votes

How much pressure should be applied early game? As much as possible. But you have to know your own and the enemy's strength. Do it when you see the opportunity to and try not to force it.

Missing cs to harass the enemy is good only if you win the trade. If you miss some cs but able to zone the enemy then I'd say missing some cs were worth it.

It all comes down to knowing get your match up really. If you understand your limits and the.opponent's limit then you will win most of the time.

Hige1 votes

Thanks for the tip! but... it's pretty much all of the same haha and don't get me wrong I appreciate the intent but it's always so vague that the whole concept is... well... impossible to grasp.

Missing CS to harrass the enemy is good only if you win the trade

The only way I can think of that could make this possible is checking on the enemy stats beforehand, this could theoretically work but you're not taking in account player skill, for example, a Sivir who knows how to AA reset has double effective damage against any and all enemy than a Sivir who just stands there and AAs.

Also take in account that if you go for harrass and things go bad for X reason, there's barely anything to do about it but focus on last hitting... and this is not what crazy successful laners do, it's in fact the opposite :S so now you understand my confusion I hope.

I've seen cocky players force their way to victory but I can't grasp how they make it work even when you blatantly can see that they barely have a clue of what they're doing :/

Zone of Endless1 votes

{quoted}

Thanks for the tip! but... it's pretty much all of the same haha and don't get me wrong I appreciate the intent but it's always so vague that the whole concept is... well... impossible to grasp.

The only way I can think of that could make this possible is checking on the enemy stats beforehand, this could theoretically work but you're not taking in account player skill, for example, a Sivir who knows how to AA reset has double effective damage against any and all enemy than a Sivir who just stands there and AAs.

Also take in account that if you go for harrass and things go bad for X reason, there's barely anything to do about it but focus on last hitting... and this is not what crazy successful laners do, it's in fact the opposite :S so now you understand my confusion I hope.

I've seen cocky players force their way to victory but I can't grasp how they make it work even when you blatantly can see that they barely have a clue of what they're doing :/

It's hard to give specific details because there are too many different scenarios and each player is different so they react to it differently.

and yeah i understand your point how thing can go wrong when you go in. It mostly happens due to bad timing mostly because people don't watch the map. Watching the minimap is extremely helpful in making your decision. If you see the enemy's jungler on the opposite side of the map then you can try to make some plays although that will depend a lot on your support as well. Sometimes even if you watch minimap things can go wrong, but they're least likely to evolve into something worst if you're careful enough.

edit: as a support main my eyes are pretty much glued to minimap 90% of the time. When I play jungle it's the same. Other roles I tend to not look as much, but i still look at it at least 50% of the time.

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