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Mid Lane - When to Roam

Nightingale·10/23/2014, 4:20:06 AM·2 votes·2,934 views

Common question here, I've been playing this game for years now, my main champions are all assassins, but historically, one of my worst things is roaming. I am currently trying to learn Ahri, and obviously she is very good at roaming. Historically though, whenever I roam, my opponent shoves tower and I lose it in no time flat.

I do tend to make sure a few things are in order first:

  • The lane is pushed
  • I have the health and mana to not feed the lane I go to
  • I won't lose out on too much CS probably

The problem is, the moment I roam, my opponent obviously hard shoves the lane and wails on my turret. Hard. This is most evident against Orianna or Zed, two common lane opponents for me.

Basically, if what I am doing is wrong, then when should I roam? I have trouble roaming when my opponent backs because then I have to back when they're already returned and pushing lane, and usually when my opponent does back, I'm out of mana / health as is.

7 Comments

TehNACHO10/23/2014, 4:45:20 AM5 votes

I do tend to make sure a few things are in order first:

  • The lane is pushed
  • I have the health and mana to not feed the lane I go to
  • I won't lose out on too much CS probably

The problem is, the moment I roam, my opponent obviously hard shoves the lane and wails on my turret. Hard. This is most evident against Orianna or Zed, two common lane opponents for me.

Okay so there are a few things you seem to be missing.

  1. Notice when the enemy backs. This is a surefire way that your enemy, who is currently standing at their fountain, can't shove your lane back.

  2. Learn how to build monster waves. You'll notice that if both you and your opponent play super passively for a while, the minion wave between you two builds up well over 6 minions per side. Once you think this has built up to a significant level, start shoving just a little bit until your lane begins to push into the enemy's direction. Once you are sure the enemy will continue to play passively and allow the wave to build up further, wave clear as much as you can to shove the monster wave under their tower and punish them hard in either CS loss or tower damage. This is ESPECIALLY potent against champions with a lot of single target abilities and/or very small AOE effects, as a well built monster wave will take forever for them to properly clear through while you go ahead and take your sweet time roaming. As a side note, no, you are not technically feeding the enemy laner. Think of it like this; let's say you have 12 minions on your side and the enemy has 12. Now let's say you kill all 12 of the enemy's minions, and your wave shoves while you leave the lane. Even if your enemy perfectly farms all 12 minions, all this means is that both you and your enemy are now ending off with the same amount of minions while you just left the lane to kill the ADC or something like.

  3. If your single enemy is able to destroy the tower, think of how fast it would take 2 of you - you and your ally you just ganked - to destroy the tower right in front of you guys. Hell, a successful gank bot lane could easily mean 3 champs attacking a tower. Especially if your teammate you just ganked is auto attack based or has a significant auto attack modifier/ability that can damage turrets, don't be afraid to stay in lane just a little longer, ping the enemy tower, and just shove it down.

Mayor Stubbs10/23/2014, 5:02:00 AM2 votes

You typically want to roam right as soon as you can once you hit level 6. This is about when you will get blue buff which enables you to push the lane hard or send your opponent back. If you're not fighting an idiot he will push the lane when you roam, or he will follow you. This is where you need to make a decision, is losing some turret health and cs worth getting my bot lane a double kill or snowballing top? Only roam to lanes you can likely get a kill in. In addition remember, if you roam enough without losing your turret it's very likely the opposing team will begin to rage at their own mid for letting you roam causing them to go on tilt which helps.

Dies to Wolves10/23/2014, 9:43:58 AM1 votes

quick tip on building a monster wave: kill enemy ranged minions fast, don't attack melees (only to grab last hit). Melees are tankier yet deal less damage; this way, they'll kinda block your wave but won't kill your minions (since their damage dealing minions, ranged ones, are dead). This will keep your wave frozen enough to get reinforcements from the next incoming wave, while giving you minion advantage. Eventually you'll have a monster wave creeping up to their turret; fast clear their minions so your huge wave gets to their turret.

Chaos Open10/23/2014, 12:09:59 PM1 votes

When roaming need to make sure the jungler knows what you're doing so if something happens he can also respond to any trouble in mid lane. You also want to make it a goal to get back as soon as possible, you don't want to abandon your lane entirely. When you do go for a gank, don't camp out. Run in, if it succeeds great, if it doesn't too bad, but don't stick around either way, get the kill(or not) then rush back to mid lane. As soon as they notice you're gone they are going to push mid-lane hard. Lastly, make sure you don't get spotted leaving; it's tempting just to head to the left or right down river but once they see that they are going to a) know you're coming and b) Know to push mid hard.

Basically when to roam, you want all or most of following conditions to be met:

  1. His tower to be down
  2. The minion wave pushed past where his tower used to be
  3. You are "big" enough that he is scared of you.
  4. He is gone, either dead or walking back to lick his wounds.
  5. Your tower, wither the 1st or 2nd row, has enough health to survive a hard push by him long enough for you to get back
  6. A lane where the other enemy is pushed too far up and can be taken down easily
  7. VISION Sorry, but if you have no wards, no roaming. If you, your support, and your jungle never considered it important enough to put down wards, you need to stay right where you are.