The Three Types of Laning Styles

Part 1: The Basics

If you're new to the game it can be very intimidating not knowing how to play the game. Every champion is unique in their own way with their own strengths and weaknesses. This thread will be geared towards teaching you the three key styles of the laning phase and which are poke, sustain and kill lanes. Much like a game of rock, paper and scissors each style counters and is countered by one of the other styles. Typically Sustain lanes counter poke, poke lanes counter kill lanes and kill lanes counter sustain lanes. Every champion has one of these styles that they excel at, one they are mediocre at and one that they have little to no ability to pull off.

I'll begin by talking about the sustain lane fighting style. Sustain laners are typically passive in nature and you can usually identify them by whether they have heals, shields, cleanses or damage mitigation included in their kit. Sustain can also encompass champions who are manaless or have ways of replenishing their energy or mana or whatever expendable resource they run on. This play style is notably much more passive than the other styles. Their main goal is to outlast rather than over power their enemies. Sustain will help with the besieging of towers late game and thwarting any possible assassination attempts on you or any of your allies. One of the weaknesses of sustain laners is that they usually have a short range on their abilites which is usually mitigated by their healing or shielding abilities. But if you can dish out large and consistent amounts of damage in a short amount of time their heals will become less noticeable as they will have a shorter time frame to apply them. And if you want one particular summoner spell that counters sustain laners you will want ignite which deals true damage (which cannot be mitigated) and also halves the power of any heals used on the ignited target during the duration of ignite. Notable sustain style champions are Janna, Graves, Vladimir, Mundo and Shen.

Poke style lanes are the middle ground between sustain and kill lanes. Typically poke style lanes are identified by one quick high damage ability or combo that has little or no window for the enemy to retaliate. The main goal of a poke lane isn't to outright kill the enemy laner but to wear them down before they get worn down themselves. If they kill the enemy laner so be it, but the usual end result a poke lane usually forces the enemy to back before they do. They will chip away at you with pot shots from a safe distance and usually have a very long range on either their auto attacks, their abilities or both. Sometimes they have a moderately damaging ability on a very short cool down or a high damage and long range ability on a moderate cool down. Outside of the laning phase they are able to safely defend towers without putting themselves in harm's way and are also able to seize towers from relative safety too. Poke laners typically have one of two things missing from their kit: crowd control or an escape. Usually when they have one they lack the other. What poke laners are typically weak to are gap closers that can negate their range advantage or high mobility targets that can dodge their abilities completely negating their main damage output. In terms of summoner spells most poke style laners favor a teleport into their build as this gets them back to lane quicker and can be used to cover up their weakness of running out of mana or health. If you want to counter poke style laners the spells heal, barrier and flash tend to soak up or dodge their poke damage giving you a window to engage upon them and make them back off you. Notable poke laners include Caitlyn, Sona, Xerath, Pantheon and Nunu.

Lastly are the kill laners. These are the all or nothing champions, that come with a high risk but also a high reward. When they go in they go for the kill. They have high damage abilities, a moderate amount of mobility and some crowd control to lock down the enemy so they can unload everything they got on them with ease. The champions who thrive on this style have elements on their kit that encourage them to get kills, such as bonus gold, ability resets, have very large power spikes early on or they have ridiculous amounts of damage that can be pulled off in a matter of seconds. These champions try to overpower their enemies and assert themselves over the enemy whenever possible. Usually their mana costs are low or if they aren't have ways of avoiding their mana costs altogether so that they have a constant dominance over their enemy. They are usually quick but often times have to put themselves in harm's way in order to get their kills. Sometimes if they are an ability reset champion they often times won't be able to escape until they get a kill. Because of this they are countered by copious amounts of crowd control and poke damage and when whittled down have to pick and choose their battles lowering their presence in lane and indirectly their overall power. As far as summoner spells go this style favors kills so spells like ignite or exhaust puts their enemy in a compromising situation which can then be exploited. Cleanse is another rare, but viable, choice that can be used on kill lane champions to counter any crowd control they may encounter. And the two best summoner spell choices to counter kill laners are exhaust and barrier. Notable kill lane champions are Draven, Blitzcrank, LeBlanc, Rengar and Kha'zix.